Because in all honesty, occasionally entertaining (though labyrinthine, "syntactic boa constrictors", to adapt a Brahms quote) as The Prodigal Sorcerer's posts up to this point might have been, they are still nowhere near the stated goal of providing something.
So let me start steering this blog into the waters it was actually due to sail (if you'll excuse the overtly literary metaphor), through providing you with two links, and a small introduction.
I am a member of the GMG Classical Music Forum, as might be evident by my linking it. (See: "Relevant To My Interests, just to the right.)
And in this wonderful forum, which I will no doubt discuss again in future posts, there is a thread about what each member is listening to, where many an odd thing sees the light of the world at large: privately-sourced recordings, old LPs, new releases, downloads and radio or internet broadcasts all eventually appear.
So, in the realm of the latter, now that I am done with forming that rather idyllic picture of our "listening" thread, through a link he provided, esteemed member Bruce Hodges (one of our moderators, as well) alerted me to the existence of two immensely interesting sites:
The first is SymphonyCast, and it provides free broadcasts, available on demand, for one orchestral concert of symphonic music per week from the world's most prominent concert halls and orchestras.
"A great nation deserves great art" appears to be the rubric (sponsored by UBS), and although this site is mainly intended for an American audience as a result, it is still a fantastic source of high-quality (for broadcasts; 128kbps) material from such ensembles as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, or the Berlin Philharmonic in fascinating programmes, often by conductors among the finest (ca. 2008).
For example, I dipped into a concert by the RCO, Iván Fischer conducting, culminating in Schoenberg's transcription of Brahms' Piano Quarter No. 1 for orchestra; and then on to the Berlin Philharmonic playing Schubert's 9th (C minor) Symphony under Bernard Haitink!
I won't add anything beyond that anyone orchestrally-inclined should investigate posthaste. And thus the second site, which those of you following classical broadcasts on the net are almost certainly aware of, but which I am still mentioning, is medici.tv.
"A compilation of on-demand video broadcasts from the great Verbier Festival, as well as more concerts from Aspen and Aix-en-Provence, coupled with live streams of them from all three (after which they enter the free, on-demand phase), and a huge historical catalogue of classical concerts and documentaries to boot (albeit for a fee, these).
The broadcasts are available in low and high quality to account for one's connection speed, and are magnificently presented throughout."
What's more to add on medici.tv? Beyond the fact that they're also sponsored by UBS, conspicuously, I can't think of anything.
But if the notion of having a front-row seat at every concert in the Verbier Festival (let alone the other two), listening to some of the best chamber and orchestral musicians perform incredible music live or whenever you want to does not appeal to you, then I do imagine you're in the part of the readership that's not here for the music!
Let me even throw in the fact that both the MET(ropolitan Opera), and now the Bayreuth Festival (yes, I did write what you just read; albeit for a hefty fee) are streaming a number of their productions online, to couple the orchestral and chamber music from above.
So it seems that times do change. And in the face of this revolution in the dissemination of good music across the globe, I would enjoy having someone tell me we are, in fact, in cultural decline.
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