Through casual observation over time, it appears that a new YourClassical freebie is posted from between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. each weekday morning. It's about 1:00 a.m. right now. I generally hit the sack between about 1 a.m.-2 a.m.
I'll be monitoring
the YourClassical website for the new
freebie of the day, while taking care of some other business. I like to post them as early in the day as possible, but if I don't do it between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., it will be considerably later in the day before I can. Remember, however, that YourClassical does archive their freebies of the day for at least a two week or so period of time, the only classical music freebie provider that I know that does that (although at least one of them keeps their freebies up for a month).
Think classical music is basically passe? While looking over
the YourClassical homepage, I saw a factoid that is pretty stunning. Who sold the most CD's this year--Adele (I love her performance of
Skyfall, BTW (but I've not heard a James Bond movie theme song yet that I didn't like)) or Mozart? It was
Mozart! In fact, "there were more Mozart CD's sold this year than discs by any pop artist." YourClassical attributes that to a massive new box set. That may be so, but nevertheless . . . .
Okay, here we go. The
freebie for today is an 11 minute, 47 second piece,
Ralph Vaughn Williams - Fantasia On Christmas Carols.
It comes from the Naxos album
Vaughn Williams - Hodie (Christmas Cantata) Fantasia on Christmas Carols.
As far as the performance of the individual,
free piece is concerned, YourClassical credits both the Guildford Choral Society (I'm guessing for the singing part. ha) and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (I'm guessing for the instrumental part. ha). Hilary Davan Wetton is the conductor.
The Naxos dedicated webpage for the album notes that
Fantasia on Christmas Carols is a "traditional" piece.
To stream the piece, click on the right arrow on the streaming bar on
this YourClassical webpage. Follow the "Direct MP3 download link" on
that same webpage to download the piece, and it should begin immediately.
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night."