Free downloads from the concertgebouworchestra (120th anniversary)

[otterhouse]

On the occassion of the 120th anniversary of the RCO:
"Starting on October the 15th you will be able to download a free
recording of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra every day. The
recordings are available until the 24th of November 2008."
Download no. 1:
Franz Schubert - Symphony no. 8 'Unfinished'
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Nikolaus Hamoncourt
(recorded in 1997).
320 kbps MP3
http://kco.radio4.nl/?lang=en

There is registration required, but the recordings are unique!

Enjoy!

Rolf

[Contratrombone64]

WOW - will check that out, thanks otter

[toto]

I nabbed the Schubert. Great stuff! There are 9 more works that will become available a day at a time.

(With the registration they ask for all sorts of personal data – they now have a Mr. J. Smith's particulars.)

[Contratrombone64]

there you go, toto, I knew you were a Smith ... AND I knew you were male.

[Krummhorn]

Rolf,

Thanks for the heads up on this great opportunity. 10 complete great symphonies in 10 days ... way cool

Listening to the Schubert right now ... beautiful recording and sound quality.

[Corno Dolce]

Aloha Rolf,

WOW!!! That is so cool - Concertgebouw downloads - Right on! Thanx for the link.

Cheerio,

CD

[Conservationist]

Awesome! I'm grabbing and will archive.

I was trying to compile a canonical list of free classical music online, and came up with this:

http://www.corrupt.org/news/free_classical_music_mp3s

There's also our DC++ hub, but I can't guarantee both free and legal there. I'd prefer both free and legal, but I won't lie to anyone: I download a ton of stuff and obsessively buy only the really good stuff

[Kuhlau]

Having downloaded all ten symphonies late last night, I've just listened to the Saint-Saens. His Third Symphony - the so-called-but-incorrectly-so 'Organ' Symphony - is a work I know very well from about a dozen or more recordings that I own. So it's only natural that I might be a bit particular about what I expect from any 'new' recordings of it.

This free download of the work begins excellently; the first three minutes are exactly what I want from the music. Then things start to veer a tad. There's the occasional slip in the woodwinds and brass, and the while the tempo is almost ideal, a little shade of rubato wouldn't have gone a miss.

The poco adagio section begins slowly - too slowly - and maintains a speed (or lack thereof) which stretches the music a bit out of shape. I started to lose the overall line, and actually got a little bored at one point. Then as the second movement opens - bear in mind that Saint-Saens wrote this work in two movements, even though it sounds like four - I was hoping for some fire. But it wasn't there. The whole first half of the second movement lacked passion for me - it just felt too tame.

Tame is also how I'd describe the organ's entrance in the finale. I have versions in my collection that sound majestic, glorious, even thundering. This performance gave me polite, and that's not what I want when I'm listening to a symphony whose composer reportedly put into it everything he had to give. The ending is okay, but I wanted spectacular. A bit of a disappointment ... but hey, it was free.

FK