Classical-music.com offers a
free classical music track each week. This week's is now available.
Here's some information about it, from Classical-music.com. The blurb is not very long, but it is packed with useful and interesting information:
The first free download of 2017 is the Kyrie from the Bohemian composer Jan Dismas Zelenka's Missa Divi Xaverii. The subject of this mass, and three litanies, is 16th-century Jesuit St Francis Xavier. He was the personal patron saint of Hapsburg Archduchess Maria Josepha, who was at the Dresden court with Zelenka during the 1720s.
The recording by Collegium Vocale 1704 received five stars in the July 2016 issue of BBC Music Magazine . 'Listeners will immediately be struck by Zelenka's distinctive and colourful deployment of instruments,' writes Nicholas Anderson. 'The work is full of vivid contrasts ranging from the resplendently orchestrated to the softly spoken.'
Classical-music.com is one of those meanies (just kidding about that) which requires you to have an account with them in order to get each freebie. There's not much involved in setting up an account. Here is
(a) (the) sign up webpage. When you are logged in, you should see, on
this webpage, a bright red "Download Now" button on the thumbnail photo of the album cover from which the
free piece comes. Simply click on that button to download your
free track automatically.
The
freebie is an MP3, and runs approximately 3 minutes and 35 seconds long.
I found the instrumental part of the track to be lovely. Why hadn't I heard of composer Jan Dismas Zelenka before??? Anyway, I hope to hear a lot more of his work in the future. And, although I generally don't like the singing in classical music pieces, it was fairly subdued in this one and, actually, enjoyable.