spreadin' the lurrrve

For all music geeks: happy belated Christmas! :)

Naxos Classical Music Online

For just US$20 a year, you get almost unlimited access to virtually the entire Naxos catalogue, including jazz and the occasional 'world' music on top of the 'classical' repertoire. Via streaming audio, which does mean that you can't download the music, but heck, that's nothing compared to the pleasure of wandering around the wonderland of musical gems and discovering previously-unknown masterworks, all at just a fraction of the price you would have had to pay to attend a concert or buy a CD.

Whatcha waitin' for? Subscribe today!

(Naxos sooooooo needs to put me on their marketing payroll....)

Incidentally, thanks to Naxos Online, i'm now completely head-over-heels in love with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major - specifically, the 1933 recording by pianist Artur Schnabel together with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Sargent. Ok, i'm not that much of a connoisseur as to be able to tell the difference between various 'good' recordings, and i don't have the musical or critical vocabulary to explain why, but of all the ones i've listened to (both on Naxos and on Amazon), Schnabel's opening to the 1st movement just gets me the most. Go listen - it may just make your day. :)


Edit: 8 March 08

WAIT!!! - don't bother subscribing!!! If you're Singaporean, you can get FREE online access to the Naxos catalogue simply by registering with the National Library Board at www.nlb.gov.sg. There's a whole treasure trove of stuff in the Digital Library - including FREE access to JSTOR, PERIND, and other scholarly databases.

So this is where some of my income tax goes. Ok, I can live with that. :)
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