Free Classical Music Online

12 November 2007 (Anthony Hawkins)
Where should you look if you want to find free classical music on the Internet? Classical Music UK finds out...

Information about classical music on the Internet is expanding at an alarming rate, packed with an ever-increasing amount of music that is free to listen to online. Many people are now using the Internet to discover free recordings of classical works, either in MP3 format (obtainable by way of download) or by audio and video streaming (viewed online, but not downloadable to your computer or iPod). Internet browsing has made classical music more accessible and available to a wider audience, embracing the needs of both the fanatics and the first-time listeners.

Many of today’s instrumentalists host free recordings for streaming or download on their websites. If you are looking to sample a particular performer’s work, then simply ‘google’ their name to locate an official website.

‘Classic Cat’ (“The Free Classical Catalogue”) specializes in directing you to those performers’ websites where you can download free classical music. Easy to navigate, and searchable by composer, performer, instrument and genre, this site houses some of the classical world’s finest young talents.

CMUK recommends:

http://www.patkop.ch/ - Visit the ‘Sounds’ page of the highly individual violinist, Patricia Kopatchinskaja; here, you will find an eclectic mix of standard and rare violin repertoire, chamber music, modern esoterica and improvisations (all live recordings).

http://www.valentinalisitsa.com/audiopage.htm - The Ukrainian-born pianist, Valentina Lisitsa, hosts a number of audio samples and video clips that show off her fiery, impassioned and virtuosic interpretations in some of the great works of the Romantic piano literature.

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• http://www.youtube.com/

The ‘YouTube’ phenomenon has spawned one of the most comprehensive free resources through which to experience classical music; it’s the place to go if you want to hear snippets of classical works or find video clips of your favourite instrumentalists. (However, despite many ‘YouTubers’’ best efforts to offer up whole pieces in a tasteful fashion, the unfortunate imposition of a ten-minute time constraint on uploaded clips often robs a larger structure of its narrative flux).

Why not visit CMUK’s page at http://www.classicalmusic.org.uk/classical-music-videos.html and post your favourite clips from YouTube? Here, we are creating a hub of classical music videos, discerningly selected by our readership; you can also rate videos and share your thoughts with the CMUK community by adding comments.

The ‘Martha Argerich Project’, an offshoot of the Lugano Festival, is an annual event that brings together today’s young soloists in concert with the some of the world’s most seasoned artists, such as Martha Argerich, Maxim Vengerov, Mikhail Pletnev, Renaud Capuçon, Ivry Gitlis and Mischa Maisky. Many of the concerts, showcasing the results of these rare chamber music collaborations, are recorded live and subsequently hosted on the website.

This site provides a quick search and audio player. Simply type your favourite composer into the search bar and ‘Seeqpod’ will scour the Web to generate playable music files.

‘The Classical Archives’ houses a great deal of the repertoire in generally obscure recordings and also by way of nauseatingly stolid and bovine midi files! Free users are entitled to access only five tracks per day.

Even if you are not fluent in Russian, this site is pretty easy to navigate; simply hover your mouse pointer above a link and the relevant information should appear at the bottom left of your screen. Once acquainted with this quirk, you will go on to find a wonderful selection of the great composers’ works and some truly historic recordings.

CMUK recommends:

http://classic.chubrik.ru/Rachmaninov-performer/ - Hear the Russian composer, Sergei Rachmaninov, at the piano, performing a selection of his own compositions.

For those with a penchant for the avant-garde, visit this site for a compendium of modernistic tidbits. Here, you will discover a kaleidoscopic outpouring of modern classics and arcana, replete with some of contemporary music’s most definitive, iconoclastic and experimental literature, surveying the breadth of movements and factions, consensus and reactions, saints and plaster saints born out of this epoch.

This collection features many of modern music’s most ingenious and influential figures – György Ligeti, Toru Takemitsu, Iannis Xenakis, Luigi Nono, Helmut Lachenmann, Anton Webern, Arnold Schoenberg, Morton Feldman, Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, Krzysztof Penderecki, Philip Glass and Steve Reich. There is also a healthy splashing of popular music for good measure, with offerings from The Beatles, Duke Ellington, Tom Waits, and R.E.M. amongst others.

(Each track is listed by way of frustratingly terse keywords, and so, in order to discern the composer and a more complete title, you should download the track. Upon playing, Windows Media Player, for example, will offer more complete track information).

CMUK recommends:

http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Different3.mp3 - For a dose of minimalism, sample Different Trains, written in 1988 by Steve Reich. Composed for string quartet and tape, it uses speech recordings to generate the musical material.

http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jacob/mp3s/Threnody.mp3 - Threnody (for the Victims of Hiroshima) for 52 strings, by Krzysztof Penderecki, is a deeply personal work, harrowing in its evocations of human misery and terror.

Classical radio stations abound, and this site links to a good many of them, with over 140 different stations to choose from. Each listing provides a useful précis and a link to the station’s homepage, where you can then listen online.

CMUK recommends:

http://www.classicfm.com/ - Since its launch in 1992, Classic FM has succeeded in bringing classical music to a much wider audience. In playing more familiar music alongside lesser-known pieces, and often exhibiting some of the world’s finest recordings, Classic FM’s output is designed to make the classical oeuvre a “relevant part of the modern lifestyle”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/ - BBC Radio 3 occupies a central role in UK classical music life, exemplary in its broadcasting of concerts. Notably, the station plays pieces in their entirety and always provides full details of each piece.

While there is a profusion of free classical music on the Internet, perhaps the most invaluable resource is www.naxosmusiclibrary.com, being the most comprehensive collection of classical music, both standard and specialist, available online. By subscribing, users gain access to over 17,600 CDs and 257,000 tracks of music – the complete catalogues of Naxos, BIS, Chandos, CPO, Hänssler, Hungaroton and Marco Polo.

Finally of course, if you want the most choice of all, you will need to investigate paid music services. These range from pay-per-download stores such as Apple's iTunes, to 'all-you-can-eat' subscription services like Napster and Rhapsody.

Napster and Rhapsody are both examples of music websites that allow you download or stream unlimited music for a small regular subscription

Have fun exploring free Classical Music on the internet! If you know of any good resources that you think should be listed on this page, then please let us know!