Topic: Classical Radio Stations and Internet Broadcasts

[Coopmv]

The site is usually a membership-only site (i.e., you pay for access), but every summer, they offer broadcasts from Saint-Denis, Aix-en-Provence and (I hope) the Verbier Festival.  The latter usually has performances by Martha Argerich; one year I watched her do the Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto (with the young, talented Verbier Festival Orchestra) maybe five of six times.  The camerawork was superb, with some great close-ups of her hands. 

It's great, because if you like that performance you're watching, you can view it as often as you like.   

--Bruce

Bruce,

Since you live in NYC, what has happened to WQXR?

[Brewski]

Bruce,

Since you live in NYC, what has happened to WQXR?

Just a caveat: I'm not a regular radio denizen--not because I don't like radio, but because I'm not at home to listen all that often.  So I may not be the best "average radio listener."

I did tune in last week, when WQXR did the NY Phil's broadcast of Le Grand Macabre, which was terrific.  There seems to be a bit more contemporary programming (e.g., their new initiative called Q2) than in the past, but that is strictly my subjective impression and may not be borne out by the actual programming statistics.

--Bruce

[Daverz]

Try MR3-Bartók Rádió. It is streamed from Hungary (a shocker, isn't it?) at 320 kbps. While I haven't tried the radio myself -- it's difficult to navigate without an English version of the site [addendum: and stream bits at @ 320 will definitely affect the internet bill amount adversely], I have downloaded a lot of ripped streams. Live concerts and a wide selection of repertoire.

Unfortunately, Bartok radio stopped streaming at high rates some months ago.  128 kbps seems to be their highest streaming rate.

[Brewski]

Once again, medici.tv is providing high-quality broadcasts from the Verbier Festival (and others).  The broadcasts are free.  (I think you have to register--just provide name and email.)  The concerts are archived, available for listening for two months.  Opening night is July 16:

Verbier Festival Orchestra
Charles Dutoit, conductor
Yuja Wang, piano

Enescu: Romanian Rhapsody No. 1
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2
Mahler: Symphony No. 1

--Bruce

[Todd]

I went on a long road trip over the holiday weekend and rented a car with Sirius XM in it and promptly searched out classical stations.  There are three that I could find, plus a fourth that plays movies soundtracks (some of which ain't too bad).  Anyway, the station called Symphony Hall is one of the best stations I've heard.  I got to hear Yakov Kreizberg's recent-ish recording of DSCH 5, Karajan's Bruckner 1, Mozart's 13th & 14th string quartets, some works by Spohr, Amy Beach, some even more obscure composers, as well as Brahms, Beethoven, Mahler, and others.  No commercials and minimal chatter, too.  The only downside is that even satellite reception is hindered in hilly, forested areas.  The "Pops" classical station is unusual in that it doesn't so much play pops works as it does play interesting movements from standard rep works (slow movement from Dvorak's 9th, piano miniatures (eg Passepied), etc).  The Met Opera broadcast station is a treasure trove of performances ancient and modern.

So, I'm left wondering, should I spend the money for a satellite radio at home?  I'm not convinced the business model is viable, and I could be left with worthless junk in a short period of time.  And beyond the classical stations, I get the same feeling I do whenever I watch cable television.  (I only do so on vacations.)  There’s so much choice, but almost all of it is crap.  I received around 250 satellite radio stations, but I could not find a good jazz station, and the rock stations focused on music I didn’t like at all, or could take only in small doses.  There were also at least a half dozen French language stations (?) playing crappy French pop (??), and well over a hundred talk stations, or at least stations where people were babbling about something or other.  Is that really worth a monthly fee? 

Internet radio available via WiMax seems to be a more viable alternative for the near future.

(I will say that satellite radio is much better than cable television, which has apparently gotten worse in the year since I last channel surfed dozens of channels.  I didn’t think that was possible.  Really, who is this Nancy Grace moron?)

[Coopmv]

I went on a long road trip over the holiday weekend and rented a car with Sirius XM in it and promptly searched out classical stations.  There are three that I could find, plus a fourth that plays movies soundtracks (some of which ain't too bad).  Anyway, the station called Symphony Hall is one of the best stations I've heard.  I got to hear Yakov Kreizberg's recent-ish recording of DSCH 5, Karajan's Bruckner 1, Mozart's 13th & 14th string quartets, some works by Spohr, Amy Beach, some even more obscure composers, as well as Brahms, Beethoven, Mahler, and others.  No commercials and minimal chatter, too.  The only downside is that even satellite reception is hindered in hilly, forested areas.  The "Pops" classical station is unusual in that it doesn't so much play pops works as it does play interesting movements from standard rep works (slow movement from Dvorak's 9th, piano miniatures (eg Passepied), etc).  The Met Opera broadcast station is a treasure trove of performances ancient and modern.

So, I'm left wondering, should I spend the money for a satellite radio at home?  I'm not convinced the business model is viable, and I could be left with worthless junk in a short period of time.  And beyond the classical stations, I get the same feeling I do whenever I watch cable television.  (I only do so on vacations.)  There’s so much choice, but almost all of it is crap.  I received around 250 satellite radio stations, but I could not find a good jazz station, and the rock stations focused on music I didn’t like at all, or could take only in small doses.  There were also at least a half dozen French language stations (?) playing crappy French pop (??), and well over a hundred talk stations, or at least stations where people were babbling about something or other.  Is that really worth a monthly fee? 

Internet radio available via WiMax seems to be a more viable alternative for the near future.

(I will say that satellite radio is much better than cable television, which has apparently gotten worse in the year since I last channel surfed dozens of channels.  I didn’t think that was possible.  Really, who is this Nancy Grace moron?)

I grappled with the same issue after I had some exposure with the Sirius XM trial in my car, but not for very long.  Most stations are crap IMO.  I am still more favor of building my own comprehensive classical music collection that I can listen to at the time of my choice instead of relying on some classical music radio stations, regardless of its broadcast technologies ...

[stingo]

WVIA is my local public radio station (and the only venue on the air for classical music).

[Opus106]

A cursory search didn't bring anything up about this site; so, here it is:

WHAT IS CLASSICAL TV?
Classical TV is a viewer-friendly, ever-changing destination at www.classicaltv.com, offering videos of the best classical performances from around the world.  The site combines frequent live and as-live special events - hot-ticket performances from the world's great opera houses, theaters, and concert halls - with an exclusive library of full-length videos of current and recent performing arts events, all available for streaming on your home computer.

In addition, Classical TV offers a wealth of lively, informative, and decidedly unstuffy feature articles, topical playlists, insider columns, and cultural news that give fresh insights into the exciting world of classical performance. New features are added all the time. Classical TV's roster of writers and commentators includes some of the world's most respected cultural journalists.

[DavidW]

Anyone here listen to their radio through ipod touch/iphone and know any good apps?  I've tried the mainstream: pandora, last.fm, aol etc but they don't do classical well.  Unless you consider classical works individual movements played like you took your whole collection and put it on random play.  Some stations have apps, but I might end up installing alot until I find a good one.  Anyone already been down that road?

[bosniajenny]

Interesting that a few have mentioned BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM (both UK). I can't stand Classic FM, just awful, acres of "pop" classic, nothing played complete, eurgh!

Radio 3 is the "must have" for anyone classically-inclined, although there has been some controversy recently about dumbing down and not getting to grips with the "difficult" stuff like they used to. They do, however, broadcast every single Promenade concert in the summer, which is a huge plus.

I listen a lot here (Sarajevo) and although the morning programming, in particular, is kind of bland these days, it does provide me with decent general listening.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Just a caveat: I'm not a regular radio denizen--not because I don't like radio, but because I'm not at home to listen all that often.  So I may not be the best "average radio listener."

I did tune in last week, when WQXR did the NY Phil's broadcast of Le Grand Macabre, which was terrific.  There seems to be a bit more contemporary programming (e.g., their new initiative called Q2) than in the past, but that is strictly my subjective impression and may not be borne out by the actual programming statistics.

--Bruce

The only classical station in one of the world's great cities used to broadcast a powerful signal at 96.3 KHz when it was owned by the New York Times. I had no trouble receiving the signal from my home 50 miles east of New York. A year or more ago the Times sold the station to WNYC, moved the frequency to a weaker signal at 105.9 which I cannot receive at home, and as far as I can see the station has continued its gradual descent into trite superficiality that began at least 10 years ago. The only time I can hear WQXR any more is when driving home from Manhattan; I lose the signal 30 miles east of the city and basically do not have a local classical station in my area.

[Sef]

Anyone here listen to their radio through ipod touch/iphone and know any good apps?  I've tried the mainstream: pandora, last.fm, aol etc but they don't do classical well.  Unless you consider classical works individual movements played like you took your whole collection and put it on random play.  Some stations have apps, but I might end up installing alot until I find a good one.  Anyone already been down that road?

I use a Wunder Radio app:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wunder-radio/id292233889?mt=8

Not free, but well worth the small one off fee. Get loads of Radio channels, grouped intelligently, and easy to find. Spent many hours listening to classial radio around the world!

[DavidW]

Oh cool Sef!  That might be worth it... if they have some stations that play complete works.  What stations do you listen to and how would you describe their programming?

[Coopmv]

The only classical station in one of the world's great cities used to broadcast a powerful signal at 96.3 KHz when it was owned by the New York Times. I had no trouble receiving the signal from my home 50 miles east of New York. A year or more ago the Times sold the station to WNYC, moved the frequency to a weaker signal at 105.9 which I cannot receive at home, and as far as I can see the station has continued its gradual descent into trite superficiality that began at least 10 years ago. The only time I can hear WQXR any more is when driving home from Manhattan; I lose the signal 30 miles east of the city and basically do not have a local classical station in my area.

That was a very sad story.  As NYT has been on the rope financially for a number of years and it chose to unload WQXR.  I was equally saddened when the other commercial classical FM WNCN was unloaded in the early 90's by GAF, a chemical company that happened to own a classical FM station.  It is absurd that NYC cannot even support one full-time commercial classical FM station.  WNYC is just part of the NPR network and probably plays classical music no more than 60% of the time ...

[(poco) Sforzando]

That was a very sad story.  As NYT has been on the rope financially for a number of years and it chose to unload WQXR.  I was equally saddened when the other commercial classical FM WNCN was unloaded in the early 90's by GAF, a chemical company that happened to own a classical FM station.  It is absurd that NYC cannot even support one full-time commercial classical FM station.  WNYC is just part of the NPR network and probably plays classical music no more than 60% of the time ...

WNYC is mostly talk radio. Some of the talk is pretty good, I admit: "Car Talk" on Saturday mornings is both hilarious and informative. They also have someone named Jonathan Schwartz who plays Sinatra ad nauseam and has the radio personality of a dishrag. I hear no classical music on WNYC itself.

[Coopmv]

WNYC is mostly talk radio. Some of the talk is pretty good, I admit: "Car Talk" on Saturday mornings is both hilarious and informative. They also have someone named Jonathan Schwartz who plays Sinatra ad nauseam and has the radio personality of a dishrag. I hear no classical music on WNYC itself.

Is the old WQXR being operated as a sister FM station by WNYC?

[DavidW]

Well I've been looking into streaming options and what I've found is that:

(a) Naxos Music Library has the best selection overall, has good sound quality and works fine on the pc.  But the websites sometimes moves sluggishly and will hang, sometimes it takes 1-2 minutes just to log in.  And the app for the ipod is riddled with streaming errors and track skipping that makes it doa and the customer service hasn't been able to figure anything out.

(b) Rhapsody has all of those major labels that NML doesn't have.  Unfortunately the search engine is TERRIBLE.  There is no power search, and you can only search by artist or album keyword, which means that you can very easily miss what you're looking for or not find it unless you search by performer instead of composer.  To top it off the album titles are incomplete, and what is shown is so vague and unhelpful that you have to click to find out, and then navigate back.  On the pc streaming yielded flash errors (really!), but the app worked fine.  On the ipod the app allows you to download and listen to anything in your library/playlists which is AWESOME!  I wish naxos had that.  Still the poor search was a deal breaker and I've moved on.

(c) Napster: I didn't even log in for a free trial because half of the searches I tried on their site generated errors.  Idiots.

(d) MOG.  That is what I'm trying now, it is only $5/mo unless you also want the ipod/phone/android app coverage as well.  The search is still too simple (as in like Rhapsody) but at least it is 10x faster and shows enough info on albums.  Seems to have pretty much the same catalog as rhapsody.  The app allows downloads too, and does them at 320k which is pretty cool.

I'm keeping NML, I just want a second service to provide the major performers from the major labels.  Naxos represents nearly all of the small labels well.

Anyone else dip their feet into the non-NML streaming services?

[DavidW]

Just wanted to add that the Naxos search works like a charm searching keywords through all tags, you can easily search by composer, performer etc all at the same time.  I think that it is STUPID that the search engines on these huge streaming sites are so poorly designed.  But then again how long has netflix been around and it has an incredibly simplistic search engine!

[DavidRoss]

 David--MOG looks interesting.  (I'll bet Benji likes it!)  Unfortunately their site does not make it easy to find basic information about the service.  What format and rate do they use for streaming files?

[DavidW]

I believe they use 256k aac for streaming on the pc, 64k aac streaming for the mobile, and 320k mp3 for downloads on the mobile.  Kind of complicated!