Welcome to Classical Connect - the free classical music site!
If you like classical music, you’ve come to the right place! Classical Connect is your virtual concert hall, featuring thousands of recordings of classical music. If you love piano music, just go to the Browse by Instruments section and access the thousand-plus piano recordings available in our library. If you prefer the violin or the flute, you won’t be disappointed either – in fact, we have music for practically every instrument! If, on the other hand, you’re interested in a particular composer, you can Browse by Composer and select your favorite.
Where do we get our music? Our site allows independent musicians to upload their own recordings, or we may do it on their behalf. Musicians value the special opportunity Classical Connect offers because it allows for their music to be heard around the world. Several hundred musicians have already joined our site. We also have arrangements with several labels, festivals, programs and orchestras, allowing us to use some of their material.
As a visitor to our site you can listen to the first three minutes of any recording. However, by joining our site you’ll have access to all full-length performances. Joining is easy and has many great benefits. You’ll be able to create playlists, comment and vote on recordings, share music with friends, listen to our special programs, and more.
The music you hear upon entry was randomly selected from our library - what we call our Serendipity list. You can always pause it or jump to the next piece. You’ll be able to change the content of these initial selections once you’ve signed in.
To help you navigate the site and use its features, we’ve also created a Help page.
In the mean time, enjoy the music!
The Classical Connect team
September 6, 2010
The great Czech composer Antonín Dvořák was born on September 8, 1841 near Prague in what was then the Austrian Empire. A musical nationalist, Dvořák broadly used Czech folk idioms in his compositions (while in the United States, he also actively promoted Native American and African American music). Dvořák wrote nine symphonies (New World Symphony being the most popular), operas, and chamber music. He also wrote three concertos; the Cello Concerto is his masterpiece.
We’ll hear Humoresque, performed by Brett Deubner (Viola); Slavonic Dance in A-Flat Major, played by the piano duo Joseph Tong and Waka Hasegawa; and String Quintet Op. 97, performed by Pacifica Quartet and Michael Tree (Viola). To listen, click here.
A note: a very mediocre composer, whose renown owes more to chance and the genius of other than any accomplishments of his own, was also born this week. Anton Diabelli was trying to promote his publishing business when he submitted a little waltz to several well-known composers to be used as a theme for variations. He expected them to write just one, which is exactly what Schubert, Czerny, Hummel, and Moscheles, among others, did. Beethoven, on the other hand, created 33, and the set became know as the Diabelli Variations. They are now considered one of his greatest piano compositions. You can hear them in Beth Levin’s interpretation here.
Welcome to our Virtual Concert Hall
We started Classical Connect with a mission to provide independent musicians with a new venue for their performances. Hundreds of classical musicians have taken advantage of this opportunity, sharing their music with listeners across the world.
We encourage you to join and upload your performances. Once signed in, you’ll be able to create a personal page with your bio, photo and other promotional materials. Since all the recordings on our site are streamed, your performance cannot be downloaded without your permission. In the future, you may also benefit from our plan to introduce fees for certain downloads. These fees will be shared with you, the musician.
Our site accepts MP3 and MP4 files, so if you have a CD recording, you can rip and upload it in this format. For better quality, we recommend using a bit rate of 128 kbps, an audio sample rate of 44 kHz, and a two-channel (stereo) format.
To upload, enter the complete title of the piece, including its key, number, opus, etc. For example, the title of Beethoven's Sonata No. 21 would be identified as Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53. "Waldstein" is optional – especially considering that in some countries, it is known as "L'Aurora." You can also leave comments about your own performance.
If your performance was recorded on several tracks, then upload each one with a different title. For example, Sonata No. 21, part 1, Sonata No. 21, part 2 and so on. Please let us know and we’ll merge these different movements into one complete performance with the appropriate title.
Please do not upload parts of a composition. Think of Classical Connect as your virtual concert hall: only upload the things you would play in a real one.
If you have any questions, please contact us by clicking here and sending us an e-mail. We'll make every effort to respond as quickly as possible.
The Classical Connect team
Benefits of Joining Classical Connect
There are many advantages to joining Classical Connect. The first, and most obvious, is the ability to listen to complete performances. We have more than 2,000 different pieces of classical music, some of them as long as an hour and 50 minutes (yes, that’s how long Mahler’s Third Symphony is!). Once you’re logged in, you can listen to every one of them from start to finish – that’s if you like the performance, of course.
You can also create personal playlists. There’s no limit to how many pieces each playlist can include. You can read more about playlists here. In addition, you can comment and vote on any piece of music in our library. The grades / rankings go from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest), but please only reserve 10s for the truly great performances and use 1s sparingly!
Another advantage includes sharing performances with your friends. Click the Share button on the Player and send a message to your friend on Classical Connect, or simply copy/paste the link into an e-mail. Your friends don’t even need to be members of Classical Connect; they can simply click on the link and listen to the complete performance the same way you do.
Also, you can actively participate in Forums only if you’ve joined the site.
Finally, as you set up your profile, you can select the content of the initial musical selection or omit it entirely.
Joining is easy. Just click here and follow the instructions.
Enjoy!
The Classical Connect team
August 30, 2010
Richard Strauss’s Violin Sonata. Richard Strauss was 23 years old when he wrote this sonata. This was his third (he had already composed a piano sonata and one for the cello) and last one: even though he composed for another 60 years, he would never return to this genre again. The Violin sonata is a romantic piece very much in the tradition of Schumann and Mendelssohn. While not considered a masterpiece, this composition is graceful, balanced, and full of wonderful melodic lines and youthful energy.
We have three performances of this sonata. The most recent one is by the violinist Korbinian Altenberger (he’s accompanied by Jiayi Shi). Mr. Altenberger was born in Munich, Germany, studied at the Musikhochschule Köln and then at the New England Conservatory as a student of Donald Weilerstein. Later he studied with Midori at the University of Southern California. Mr. Altenberger received first prize at the Jacob Stainer Violin Competition in 2005, and second prize at the prestigious Montreal International Musical Competition in 2010. You can listen to his performance here.
The second performance is by the young American violinist Tessa Lark. Ms. Lark also studied at the New England Conservatory (with Miriam Fried). She has won several competitions: first place at the Johansen International Strings Competition in Washington, D.C., in 2006, and another first place at the Irving Klein International String Competition in San Francisco in 2008. You can listen to her performance of the sonata here. Ms. Lark is accompanied by Ron Regev.
Finally, we have two masters who need no introduction: Ilya Kaler and Eteri Andjaparidze. You can enjoy their interpretation here.
August 23, 2010
The young cellist Fanny Nemeth-Weiss likes to travel: she was born in Hungary and studied in Zagreb (Croatia), Graz (Austria), Zurich and Basel (Switzerland), where she was a student of Ivan Monighetti. In 2005 she entered the Manhattan School of Music and is currently studying at the Catholic University of America. Fanny received scholarships from several programs, including the Itzhak and Toby Perlman program. She also participated in master classes lead by Bernard Greenhouse, Eleonore Schoenfeld, Natalia Shahovskaya, Itzhak Perlman, Robert Mann, the Takacs Quartet and several others. In 2008 Fanny made her Weill Recital Hall debut. She played recitals and chamber concerts in France, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Italy, and other countries.
We’ll hear two large-scale works played by Ms. Nemeth-Weiss: first, Robert Schumann’s Fantasy Pieces Op. 73, and then Suite for solo cello no. 3 in C Major by Bach. To listen, click here.
August 16, 2010
Claude Debussy, one of the most influential and popular composers of the last 100 years, was born on August 22, 1862. From Maurice Ravel’s works at the beginning of the 20th century, to the young Stravinsky, "Les Six," Vaughn Williams, Messiaen, and Toru Takemitsu’s compositions at the end of the 20th century, Debussy’s influence is enormous. And judging by how often his music is played in concert halls and on the radio, he remains tremendously popular with the listening public and the performers. On Classical Connect we have a large selection of Debussy’s works: his numerous piano works, songs, several recordings of cello and violin sonatas, and his quartet in g minor – just go to Browse by Composer and select Debussy. Our short playlist contains three piano works: General Lavine – eccentric, from Préludes Book II played by Jorge Federico Osorio; Mouvement, played by the young Georgian pianist Ana Gligvashvili (Piano); and Jardins sous la pluie, from Estampes, performed by Michael Mizrahi. To listen, click here.
August 9, 2010
Sorabji and Ibert. Two very different composers were born on August 15, 2010: Kaikhosru Sorabji and Jacques Ibert. Sorabji, a British composer of Indian descent, was born in 1892. He wrote extraordinarily long and difficult piano pieces. His work Opus Clavicembalisticum, was once listed in the Guinness book of records as the longest piano piece ever composed: the complete performance runs about four hours. Not very many pianists attempt to play Sorabji; among the well-known recordings are those of the late John Ogdon. Marc-André Hamelin and Fredrik Ullén also play Sorabji. It’s interesting to note that Ullén also recorded George Flynn’s piece Trinity, which runs for about an hour and 10 minutes (in our library we have a recording made by the composer). Sorabji, incidentally, was one of the composers who influenced George Flynn. We included Sorabji’s Pastiche on Habanera from "Carmen" by Bizet, brilliantly played by Nikolai Choubine. Not to worry, this one runs less than 6 minutes.
The Frenchman Jacques Ibert, born in 1890, was a very different composer altogether: optimistic, joyful, witty and often brief – everything that Sorabji was not. We have a short exerpt, Allegro con moto, from Concertino Da Camera played by the virtuoso saxophonist Ashu. To listen to the playlist, click here.
August 2, 2010
Beatrice Berrut is a young talented pianist from Switzerland. She was born in Geneva; studied in Zurich with Ester Yellin at the Heinrich Neuhaus Foundation, and then at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy in Berlin, with Galina Iwanzowa. Since then Beatrice has developed an active career, playing numerous concerts throughout Europe and the US. In addition to giving solo performances, she enjoys collaborating with other musicians. Gidon Kremer, who calls her “a wonderfully talented and musical pianist,” invited her to play several concerts at his festival in Basel. She also often plays with the violinist Viviane Hagner. We’ll hear two large, technically challenging and very different works: Franz Liszt’s Après une Lecture de Dante (Fantasia quasi Sonata) and Robert Schumann’s Piano Sonata, Op.11. We think you’ll enjoy them. We also have the recording of Brahms’ Klavierstücke op.118 and Rachmaninov’s Etude-Tableau op.39 no. 2. To listen to Liszt and Schumann, click here.