Free classical music on the internet


'Where to find the cheapest music on the internet' is the promise in today's Independent. But, on the weekend that the BBC Proms start, the Indie forgets that there is such a thing as classical music to download. To redress the balance, here is an alternative guide to the digital revolution in the form of twelve 'wild cards' of classical downloads. All but one (thanks Bernard) have been supplied from the States by the indefatigable Walt Santner whose complete download detective work can be found down this path.

Walt and I must bracket these wild cards with a major health warning. We can't guarantee the quality or copyright status of the files which the links point at. We are not hosting these files, they are not recommendations but rather suggestions for exploration. Feedback from readers on Aces and Jokers and other recommendations via Comments will be very much appreciated.

* American works for winds with Howard Hanson - Card 1
* Transfers of Victor Red Seal 78s - Card 2
* Ethnic music including Roma recordings - Card 3
* Japanese pre-World War 2 recordings - Card 4
* Rare recordings of music by Agathe Backer Grøndahl, the Norwegian composer and pianist - Card 5
* Nine conversations about the Beethoven Symphonies - Card 6
* More CBC Radio 2 podcasts - Card 7
* Royal College of Music, Stockholm concerts with adventurous music - Card 8
* Le Nozze de Figaro - study and excerpts - Card 9
* Charlegmane Palestine + GOL - French avant garde - Card 10
* Bach Complete Partitas for Piano - Cards 10A & 10B
* OnClassical whose recordings include the Bach above - Card 11
* Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music - Card 12
* Peter Paul Fuchs' music - Overgrown Path podcast

Header image sampled from Julke Marie Smith's work on ArtRugs.com. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Comments

fugaz said…
Let me bring to you attention musikethos. Copyright "free" classical mp3.
1:19 pm
Pliable said…
When I was putting this post together this morning I was concerned at the lack of early music sites offering downloads. The reason is, presumably, that a lot of the classical download sites offer old recordings that are out of copyright in Europe and there are not many decent early music recordings that are out of copyright.

But here is one site worth exploring, other early music download suggestions welcome.

http://www.jsayles.com/familypages/earlymusic.htm
7:08 pm
Unknown said…
The following link to Danish Radio provides downloads and Concerts to listen to:-


http://www.dr.dk/P2/P2+Koncerten/
8:11 pm
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