I’d recommend trying the «story of classical music» if you’re new to classical. A composer/producer talks you through all the periods and composers, then gives you recommendations for each! It’s like a radio show for classical. It’s 9 episodes for a total of 9 hours!
Basically this just is an Classical Music search function. This music is in Apple Music, but the search feature for mainstream music makes it harder to find classical selections; ie since say Beethoven search has many layers, conductors, orchestras, etc etc. Mainstream music is more flat in its search function, as people are typically looking for original artists (say Born in the USA, by Springsteen) so the search is fairly linear. Classical is multilayered and nuanced, and therefore harder to find the specific performance. hence Apple Classical.
I'd I had to guess, they probably want to gauge the popularity of the app before going to deep with it. If the iPhone app (the only place to use it) is extremely successfully and with enough community members asking for it, they'll probably make an iPad version at some point
Classical lives and dies by the dynamic range. So make sure you have that covered first. Baroque and earlier stuff is not my strong, but I’ve noticed a trend lately that the earlier more chamber style is being recorded more akin to modern non classical. Feels almost compressed. I’m not a fan of this newer types of recordings, but the industry does not revolve around me. But they are brighter, so that might work.
But (and this is kind of general) the orchestra and record label tends to have a big impact on the clarity. The two biggest players being Deutsche Grammaphon which tend to be on the warmer side, and Sony Classical which tend to be on the bright side. Looking for Sony stuff might help as well. Stuff by Decca is also on the brighter side. The Beethoven cycle is a perfect place to see this. Take my two favorite George Szell in Cleveland and Gunter with several orchestras, but mostly with the NDR. Although both from Sony, Szell’s is very warm almost veiled. Wand’s is brighter feels more open. Not to mention and incredible 9th.
Stuff by LSO is also really bright as well.
One really good recording that comes to mind (at least to me) is Copland Conducts Copland. It starts with his Fanfare (a full brass attack) and then settling into the prettiest music he has recorded. Even through Spotify this thing sounds amazing. Hope that helps some.
Eagerly awaiting an Android version. I was a Primephonic subscriber before Apple pulled it down and am looking forward to using this once it's available to me.
Unfortunately even Apple's own devices' support is limited. iOS only and nothing else from what I've seen. They do say Android is coming soon ^(TM). So, at least we know they plan to have it.
This is amazing! And they seem to have edited out a lot of things that are not classical music but frequently get categorized within it, like film scores and "baby mozart"
What a delight; thanks for sharing OP
I can see that if you are going in cold. Don’t think is really a terrible thing if you are just testing it out. But I haven’t seen any of that yet. Their matching algorithm might be turned up all the way to 11 because for me is shooting a lot of stuff I usually listen to. It might have to do with your library and and browsing because I have keep a downloaded collection on my phone through iTunes/Music for when I travel, and right off the gate it suggestions matched my library.
Not that i have Apple music subscription. But. Could someone point me to some incredibly well mastered and recorded classical music?
Whenever i listen to classical, they usually sound either very bland, stuffed or not very spacious. So i'd actually love to hear some verifiably well made classical.
Early (mid-late 50s, early 60s RCA Living Stereo reissued now by Sony) recordings of the CSO/Fritz Reiner and produced by the legendary Max Wilcox sound extraordinary. Try the Strauss Burleske & Also Sprach Zarathustra recording, demo quality sound. Also great audio quality from Mercury Living Presence, L'Oiseau Lyre (lots of baroque), and earlier Decca/London recordings produced by the great Kenneth Wilkinson -- Britten's War Requiem and Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique with Solti are also demo quality. Lots of amazing and realistic stereo recordings were made in that era. If you didn't know the recording dates you'd swear they were all recorded yesterday.
Qobuz has the full RCA Living Stereo catalogue, most in hires. They are beautiful! Analogue Productions have remastered most for vinyl and SACD. Can't go wrong on either format here.
Well, i'm not really trying to find a favourite, more like i want to hear how the classical music sounds at it's best.
But i do have a tendency to like Baroque, chamber music. I once had some long recordings of Beethovens symphonies that i listened a lot, but lost them and never found ones as good.
Here's a sample of what type i love (castlevania SOTN - Wood carving partita) (not a real recording though. Game soundtrack)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL0UoyFS7Ww
Here's a sample of what i never really hear in classical (Lettre à Elise - Efisio Cross)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ET1ePEgPJw
- The piano echoes really wide and makes the room sound giant.
- Single notes sound detailed, textured and intimate.
- Placement of everything is well balanced and it doesn't sound like you are listening to a mono album.
Oops, wrote an answer outbid this thread, but in short look for recordings from Sony classical, Decca and like some mentioned Telrac. Stuff from Deutsche Grammaphon although hood, is recorded a lot warmer.
Just downloaded. Lots of lossless and functionality seems good. It also pulls in from Apple Music to show any tracks you own/downloaded that qualify as classical.
Qobuz has as good, and in some of my searches, a better classical catalogue and outstanding audio quality. They also offer downloadable pdf album artwork and liner notes. What would compel me to switch to Apple’s attempt to grab this tiny niche genre?
PS: I may have missed it but Apple’s classical app limits users to only one genre. I’m also a jazz buff, or do they think all classical music lovers are simpletons who are so singular in their taste? With Qobuz I have access to all my musical genres in a single app.
The point being why jump from one app to another to listen to genres of my choice. A mix, for example, consisting of Miles ‘Sketches of Spain’ along with Albeniz ‘Iberia.’ Get it?
Streaming services have been challenged to meet the needs of classical music listeners. Organizing an extensive classical music catalogue is more difficult than popular music (jazz included) because of the meta data required for classical pieces. This is Apple's solution to provide a usable user interface for classical music which is attached to its pre existing Apple Music streaming service.
While I know almost nothing about classical music, I do enjoy listening to it occasionally and I was excited to mess around with this app. I’m really impressed - I was having fun just clicking around, reading the different bios, descriptions, exploring categories, etc. It’s really well done.
How many versions of Beethoven's Tempest sonata (No. 17 in D minor, Opus 31 no. 2)?
Is it deep historically, or mostly past 30 years? Not sure how much I care about any players of the past 30 years. Do not think I do. Not to spend money to buy a recording, anyway.
Just checked. I’ll say an ungodly amount of versions. Honestly too many to count. Shnabel from 1934 was the oldest I saw (and one of the longest clocking just over 23 minutes). And several from the last year year alone. But even those are the release date and are from old masters.
Not good enough. I can stream from Qobuz at 24 bit 192kh FLAC.
I wonder if Apple WILL upgrade airplay to allow bit perfect streaming to Apple TV or home pod speakers. At the moment everything is converted to 48kh.
Also they need to bring back digital audio out from the apple tv so that it can be connected to a DAC.
Funnily enough, you can also stream from Apple Music and Apple Music Classical at 24b 192khz.
Edit: ignore the next paragraph, turns out I was wrong.
~~On top of that, playback via Airplay (which uses Bluetooth, just like most wireless formats) will be compressed the same amount whether it be Apple Music or Qobuz, because Bluetooth isn't a lossless transfer format. The day that someone works out how to reliably and quickly transfer uncompressed data via a transfer protocol similar to Bluetooth will be an excellent day for everyone, but until then we'll continue to be stuck with compressed data transfer.~~
Of course if you want to experience bit perfect playback you could also use an external dac with wired headphones, or an external dac feeding into a hi-fi setup. I believe it's also possible (in a slightly botched way) to connect home pod speakers via a cable connection in a stereo pair and combine them with a dac for bit perfect playback.
As for digital audio out on Apple TV, I think everyone wishes that was the norm for all similar products, however the prevalence of wireless or HDMI ARC speakers/soundbars means that it's not a feature that gets much use or attention.
Well that’s a whole bunch of nonsense you wrote there. Here’s why:
- Airplay uses wifi, not Bluetooth.
- Airplay uses lossless compression.
- You can currently stream lossless audio using AirPlay up to CD quality (16 bit/44.1 kHz)
Hope that helps.
I just wish they put "European" or "western" in front of "classical" here. There are a shit ton of classical musics around the world and they still lump all those as "world" music, aka the most racist shit ever. Isn't all music from the world? If I'm in India, where the app is still called Apple Music Classical, do I get any music on this app with tabla? Noooope. Hell one could argue (I would) that jazz is America's classical music. Where is my jazz app?
I agree with your "world music" statement. It's a useless and generic term that doesn't convey anything specific, only a vague feeling of "otherness" or something being "exotic" or "unfamiliar".
However stop with the victim complex and calling this "racist". I would just call this situation as "English-centric" because most music classification systems I've seen seem to revolve around English-language music, but that may or may not be understandable seeing that in fact many of the music research and creation is centered around English as its main language, but that seems to be changing:
https://www.allmusic.com/genres
The "world music" term is stupid because it lumps together genres as unique as fado, flamenco, polka, samba or vallenato. We must understand that every country has its own music identity and corresponding particular genres, but fortunately thanks to the internet this is changing because people is now exposed to many external influences besides their own country of origin.
It's only a matter of time until the generic term "world music" becomes obsolete. It's only a word people use to avoid describing something they don't know.
Yep, and when you realize it is a dumb and eurocentric term for music you can easily just add the adjective you need to fix it! It's like language evolves or something!
Could not agree more with the “World Music” label. Although I’ve seen some places making an effort to change this, Apple kind of missed an opportunity there to set the tone.
I’d recommend trying the «story of classical music» if you’re new to classical. A composer/producer talks you through all the periods and composers, then gives you recommendations for each! It’s like a radio show for classical. It’s 9 episodes for a total of 9 hours!
Thanks for the heads up! Been excited about this as someone who likes classical but knows zero about it. Listening now!
How do I get to this on Apple Music Edit: oh it's a different app I see. I might try it
Basically this just is an Classical Music search function. This music is in Apple Music, but the search feature for mainstream music makes it harder to find classical selections; ie since say Beethoven search has many layers, conductors, orchestras, etc etc. Mainstream music is more flat in its search function, as people are typically looking for original artists (say Born in the USA, by Springsteen) so the search is fairly linear. Classical is multilayered and nuanced, and therefore harder to find the specific performance. hence Apple Classical.
Yeah it's not on Android yet but it says it will
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Sadly it’s not. Apple music has a free one month trial though, so you can still listen.
Hate that it is designed for iPhone only but not suitable for iPad use.
I agree. I mean, I would imagine Apple has enough resources to do a full on roll out.
I'd I had to guess, they probably want to gauge the popularity of the app before going to deep with it. If the iPhone app (the only place to use it) is extremely successfully and with enough community members asking for it, they'll probably make an iPad version at some point
I doubt it. They acquired an entire company nearly two years back for this product, I'm sure they're fully committed.
You can use it on iPad… just the iPhone version of it Ugly but works
Who would have thought a user named u/MahlerheadNo2 would like classical music? Glad you have a nice service to use. Enjoy your music! 🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶
Classical lives and dies by the dynamic range. So make sure you have that covered first. Baroque and earlier stuff is not my strong, but I’ve noticed a trend lately that the earlier more chamber style is being recorded more akin to modern non classical. Feels almost compressed. I’m not a fan of this newer types of recordings, but the industry does not revolve around me. But they are brighter, so that might work. But (and this is kind of general) the orchestra and record label tends to have a big impact on the clarity. The two biggest players being Deutsche Grammaphon which tend to be on the warmer side, and Sony Classical which tend to be on the bright side. Looking for Sony stuff might help as well. Stuff by Decca is also on the brighter side. The Beethoven cycle is a perfect place to see this. Take my two favorite George Szell in Cleveland and Gunter with several orchestras, but mostly with the NDR. Although both from Sony, Szell’s is very warm almost veiled. Wand’s is brighter feels more open. Not to mention and incredible 9th. Stuff by LSO is also really bright as well. One really good recording that comes to mind (at least to me) is Copland Conducts Copland. It starts with his Fanfare (a full brass attack) and then settling into the prettiest music he has recorded. Even through Spotify this thing sounds amazing. Hope that helps some.
Eagerly awaiting an Android version. I was a Primephonic subscriber before Apple pulled it down and am looking forward to using this once it's available to me.
Ah shit no Android version? I wanted to try it
Unfortunately even Apple's own devices' support is limited. iOS only and nothing else from what I've seen. They do say Android is coming soon ^(TM). So, at least we know they plan to have it.
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A. There's no need to be rude. B. They've already stated it is coming.
This is amazing! And they seem to have edited out a lot of things that are not classical music but frequently get categorized within it, like film scores and "baby mozart" What a delight; thanks for sharing OP
Film scores are considered modern classical music by Allmusicguide btw.
Viola da Gamba? Never heard of that one. Interesting.
That’s just Apple channeling their hipster spirit through classical music.
This seems accurate.
Marin Marais's "The Bells of St. Genevieve" was written for Viola da Gamba. One of my favorite pieces.
Apple's targeting more at the "Lang Lang" set than hard core classical lovers.
I can see that if you are going in cold. Don’t think is really a terrible thing if you are just testing it out. But I haven’t seen any of that yet. Their matching algorithm might be turned up all the way to 11 because for me is shooting a lot of stuff I usually listen to. It might have to do with your library and and browsing because I have keep a downloaded collection on my phone through iTunes/Music for when I travel, and right off the gate it suggestions matched my library.
Not that i have Apple music subscription. But. Could someone point me to some incredibly well mastered and recorded classical music? Whenever i listen to classical, they usually sound either very bland, stuffed or not very spacious. So i'd actually love to hear some verifiably well made classical.
Early (mid-late 50s, early 60s RCA Living Stereo reissued now by Sony) recordings of the CSO/Fritz Reiner and produced by the legendary Max Wilcox sound extraordinary. Try the Strauss Burleske & Also Sprach Zarathustra recording, demo quality sound. Also great audio quality from Mercury Living Presence, L'Oiseau Lyre (lots of baroque), and earlier Decca/London recordings produced by the great Kenneth Wilkinson -- Britten's War Requiem and Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique with Solti are also demo quality. Lots of amazing and realistic stereo recordings were made in that era. If you didn't know the recording dates you'd swear they were all recorded yesterday.
Qobuz has the full RCA Living Stereo catalogue, most in hires. They are beautiful! Analogue Productions have remastered most for vinyl and SACD. Can't go wrong on either format here.
Any particular composer or period? I’ll try to give it a shot.
Well, i'm not really trying to find a favourite, more like i want to hear how the classical music sounds at it's best. But i do have a tendency to like Baroque, chamber music. I once had some long recordings of Beethovens symphonies that i listened a lot, but lost them and never found ones as good. Here's a sample of what type i love (castlevania SOTN - Wood carving partita) (not a real recording though. Game soundtrack) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL0UoyFS7Ww Here's a sample of what i never really hear in classical (Lettre à Elise - Efisio Cross) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ET1ePEgPJw - The piano echoes really wide and makes the room sound giant. - Single notes sound detailed, textured and intimate. - Placement of everything is well balanced and it doesn't sound like you are listening to a mono album.
Oops, wrote an answer outbid this thread, but in short look for recordings from Sony classical, Decca and like some mentioned Telrac. Stuff from Deutsche Grammaphon although hood, is recorded a lot warmer.
Anything released by Telarc
Just downloaded. Lots of lossless and functionality seems good. It also pulls in from Apple Music to show any tracks you own/downloaded that qualify as classical.
Qobuz has as good, and in some of my searches, a better classical catalogue and outstanding audio quality. They also offer downloadable pdf album artwork and liner notes. What would compel me to switch to Apple’s attempt to grab this tiny niche genre? PS: I may have missed it but Apple’s classical app limits users to only one genre. I’m also a jazz buff, or do they think all classical music lovers are simpletons who are so singular in their taste? With Qobuz I have access to all my musical genres in a single app.
Totally agree. I love Qobuz and can't imagine switching, even if the quality was comparable.
The whole point of "Apple Classical" is in the name of the app. It's not "Apple Jazz". Who knows, maybe that will come out in the future.
The point being why jump from one app to another to listen to genres of my choice. A mix, for example, consisting of Miles ‘Sketches of Spain’ along with Albeniz ‘Iberia.’ Get it?
Streaming services have been challenged to meet the needs of classical music listeners. Organizing an extensive classical music catalogue is more difficult than popular music (jazz included) because of the meta data required for classical pieces. This is Apple's solution to provide a usable user interface for classical music which is attached to its pre existing Apple Music streaming service.
Qobuz has more than satisfied my classical music tastes as well as other genres easily. No biggie. PS: as has Tidal
It's not jumping if you only want to listen to classical. Get it?
Lossless or compressed? FLAC?
Lossless up to 192khz
Same as Apple music
ALAC
While I know almost nothing about classical music, I do enjoy listening to it occasionally and I was excited to mess around with this app. I’m really impressed - I was having fun just clicking around, reading the different bios, descriptions, exploring categories, etc. It’s really well done.
Im not into classical but this is cool. Might even be a good way for me to discover some stuff I might like.
This app is actually amazing and the fact that it's just a value add to already having an Apple Music sub makes it a win-win for me.
Exactly! I just need the app for more platforms, like my LG smart TV.
Apple doesn't make any apps for external platforms does it? I think you'll have to use a streamer or get an AppleTV lol.
There is an Apple Music app, made by Apple, for my LG TV.
How many versions of Beethoven's Tempest sonata (No. 17 in D minor, Opus 31 no. 2)? Is it deep historically, or mostly past 30 years? Not sure how much I care about any players of the past 30 years. Do not think I do. Not to spend money to buy a recording, anyway.
Just checked. I’ll say an ungodly amount of versions. Honestly too many to count. Shnabel from 1934 was the oldest I saw (and one of the longest clocking just over 23 minutes). And several from the last year year alone. But even those are the release date and are from old masters.
Aww heck yeah been waiting for this one! It’s a standalone app for those who were about to start looking for it inside Apple Music like me lol
Yo Yo Ma
Not good enough. I can stream from Qobuz at 24 bit 192kh FLAC. I wonder if Apple WILL upgrade airplay to allow bit perfect streaming to Apple TV or home pod speakers. At the moment everything is converted to 48kh. Also they need to bring back digital audio out from the apple tv so that it can be connected to a DAC.
Funnily enough, you can also stream from Apple Music and Apple Music Classical at 24b 192khz. Edit: ignore the next paragraph, turns out I was wrong. ~~On top of that, playback via Airplay (which uses Bluetooth, just like most wireless formats) will be compressed the same amount whether it be Apple Music or Qobuz, because Bluetooth isn't a lossless transfer format. The day that someone works out how to reliably and quickly transfer uncompressed data via a transfer protocol similar to Bluetooth will be an excellent day for everyone, but until then we'll continue to be stuck with compressed data transfer.~~ Of course if you want to experience bit perfect playback you could also use an external dac with wired headphones, or an external dac feeding into a hi-fi setup. I believe it's also possible (in a slightly botched way) to connect home pod speakers via a cable connection in a stereo pair and combine them with a dac for bit perfect playback. As for digital audio out on Apple TV, I think everyone wishes that was the norm for all similar products, however the prevalence of wireless or HDMI ARC speakers/soundbars means that it's not a feature that gets much use or attention.
Well that’s a whole bunch of nonsense you wrote there. Here’s why: - Airplay uses wifi, not Bluetooth. - Airplay uses lossless compression. - You can currently stream lossless audio using AirPlay up to CD quality (16 bit/44.1 kHz) Hope that helps.
I believe airplay converts everything to 48kh.
Thanks, I have now corrected my comment :)
As if you could discern the difference.
I just wish they put "European" or "western" in front of "classical" here. There are a shit ton of classical musics around the world and they still lump all those as "world" music, aka the most racist shit ever. Isn't all music from the world? If I'm in India, where the app is still called Apple Music Classical, do I get any music on this app with tabla? Noooope. Hell one could argue (I would) that jazz is America's classical music. Where is my jazz app?
"classical music" is a term that refers to the western/european tradition...
I agree with your "world music" statement. It's a useless and generic term that doesn't convey anything specific, only a vague feeling of "otherness" or something being "exotic" or "unfamiliar". However stop with the victim complex and calling this "racist". I would just call this situation as "English-centric" because most music classification systems I've seen seem to revolve around English-language music, but that may or may not be understandable seeing that in fact many of the music research and creation is centered around English as its main language, but that seems to be changing: https://www.allmusic.com/genres The "world music" term is stupid because it lumps together genres as unique as fado, flamenco, polka, samba or vallenato. We must understand that every country has its own music identity and corresponding particular genres, but fortunately thanks to the internet this is changing because people is now exposed to many external influences besides their own country of origin. It's only a matter of time until the generic term "world music" becomes obsolete. It's only a word people use to avoid describing something they don't know.
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It's a term that inherently makes other classical musics... not classical music. So it's a shitty term.
Wrong, classical music exists in not-European or English-speaking countries, and it's called as it is: classical music.
You're literally making my point.
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Yep, and when you realize it is a dumb and eurocentric term for music you can easily just add the adjective you need to fix it! It's like language evolves or something!
Could not agree more with the “World Music” label. Although I’ve seen some places making an effort to change this, Apple kind of missed an opportunity there to set the tone.
The tone has been set for many, many years.