FREE/BARGAIN — Media Deals (non-eBook/non-audiobook)

[GtrsRGr8]

Naxos has an album entitled (in part), Tchaikovsky - Sleeping Beauty - Glazunov - The Seasons. Today, we are allowed to download free from that album, the piece Sleeping Beauty: Waltz. This comes courtesy of YourClassical.com (among others, I'm sure).

Briefly, let me state the credits and give some other basic information about the album. It is performed, according to the album cover, by CSR Symphony Orchestra. However, the dedicated YourClassical webpage for the free piece credits Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. Without researching it, I have strong reason to believe that these are one in the same. CSR probably stands for Czech-Slovak (Bratislava is in the Czech Republic). I suspect, that at some point, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra became its own independent organization. Both the album cover and the webpage are in agreement that the conductor is Ongrej Lenard. You can find out a lot more other things about the album, by pointing your browser to this dedicated Naxos webpage for the album.

Interested in downloading the entire, 4 minute, 38 second, MP3 free piece? Point your web browser to the dedicated YourClassical webpage for the piece. Find the link that says "Direct MP3 download link," and click on it. That should cause the file with the free piece to download to the default place on your computer or MP3 player where such things get downloaded to. You might be interested, for some reason, in streaming the piece. You can do that, too, by going to the dedicated YourClassical webpage for the free piece.

My opinion of the piece? It is unremarkable, but not pedestrian.

A question for you all. Was this piece played in the Disney Sleeping Beauty animated movie? I'm almost sure that I watched the movie as a very young child, shortly after it was released, but, of course, I don't remember the scores in the movie. Was the name of the movie, "Sleeping Beauty," taken from the name of this Tchaikovsky piece? I'm asking, genuinely, for information, because I'm curious, but don't know the answer.

[ATDrake]

Humble Bundle has a new offering for:

Humble Software Bundle for PC Lovers which contains applications that Windows users might find useful, mostly for utilities.

The $1 tier has a lifetime license (2 computers) for AirParrot 2, a wireless mirroring/streaming utility which MR-goers with media libraries and receiving device such as an Apple TV may find handy. ETA: apparently this one is also available for the Mac, and full system requirements/compatibility for all the offers can be found here.

The better-than-average tier (currently hovering at less than $5) contains two backup solutions: one a lifetime license for 3 computers for utilities to create and manipulate backup images, the other a 6-month subscription to a well-regarded online backup service (new users only, though; if you're already a BackBlaze customer, apparently you're out of luck when it comes to gaining a discount although apparently you can gift the redemption code onto someone else).

There's also some other stuff included at each level, and the top tier costs $12.

PC means you care. The Humble Software Bundle is back in town, baby. This one goes out to all you lovers out there – PC lovers, of course! We've bundled up a selection of software to help your gaming computer repair its broken heart and run smooth as jazz.

Pay $1 or more for System Mechanic 16.5, AirParrot 2 (two-pack), and EaseUS Partition Master Pro 11.9. You'll also receive a coupon for 10% off Humble Monthly for new subscribers.

Pay more than the average price and you’ll also get DAEMON Tools Pro 8 Lifetime, 3DMark Advanced Edition, and 6 months of unlimited backup with Backblaze Online Backup for new users.

Pay $12 or more for all of that plus PCMark 8 Advanced Edition, VRMark Advanced Edition, and 1 year of Dashlane Premium for new users.

[GtrsRGr8]

Download free, today, The Planets: Venus, by composer Gustav Holst.

YourClassical is offering the free piece, which is taken from a Naxos album entitled Holst - The Planets (includes Pluto by Colin Matthews), The Mystic Trumpeter. The piece is an 8 minute, 32 second rendition, performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, with David Lloyd-Jones directing as conductor. It is formatted as an MP3.

Find out much more about the entire album, if you wish, by navigating to this dedicated Naxos webpage for the entire album.

The piece is beautiful in my estimation. It is calming. It is generally slow. The highs in volume are not very high, and the lows in volume are not very low.

Should you wish to stream and/or download the free piece, you can do it from this YourClassical dedicated webpage for the free piece.

If I might add a personal remark . . . . it is gratifying to see that Naxos recognizes Pluto as a planet. Not a "dwarf planet," but a planet. That's what I was taught in school, so that must be right. However, I notice that the physical release of the album was in 2002, which was about the time the brouhaha erupted among the pointey-headed astronomers about the status of Pluto, so I don't know how Naxos would feel today.

[Dr. Drib]

Got it.

Thank you!

[GtrsRGr8]

Grab a free track, courtesy of YourClassical, from composer Alexander Borodin's album, published by Naxos, entitled Borodin - String Quartets - Nos. 1 and 2. The Budapest Haydn Quartet performs. You can find out a lot more about the album, from which the free piece has been selected, by pointing your browser to this Naxos dedicated webpage for the album (these webpages have been loading very slowly for me lately, and I think that you'll probably have the same experience).

The freebie is an 8 minute, 26 minute rendition of Borodin's String Quartet No. 2: Notturno: Andante. The free piece is formatted in MP3.

Ready to download the piece, or at least stream it to see how you like it? You can do either or both on this webpage--YourClassical's dedicated webpage for the free piece. To start the automatic download, click on the link that says, "Direct MP3 download link."

My opinion of the free piece . . . . well, I've mentioned before (too many times, I'm going to quit doing it!) that I generally don't like violin music in classical music (now in a bluegrass band (where the instrument is called a fiddle), that's a whole different matter!). The violin is dominant in this free piece. Otherwise, I feel like the piece doesn't have much to commend it. But, it's still going to be a keeper. Maybe you'll enjoy it more.

This is Thursday's freebie from YourClassical, so expect one more, tomorrow, before the week (M-F) of giveaways from them is over.

[Kyle Connor]

Hmm. Need to see this Classical webpage for free piece

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Kyle Connor

Hmm. Need to see this Classical webpage for free piece

Welcome to posting on MobileRead. I'll send you some "karma."

[GtrsRGr8]

I'm not a fan of electronic music, so it is hard for me to gauge whether or not it would sound good to those who do like the genre. But I think that it would sound pleasing to those who like electronic music, so I'm going to post this freebie. Sorry to be so late in the day today (Thursday) doing it.

Artist: Matteo Vallicelli
Album: Primo
Label: Captured Tracks / SC Distribution
Genre: Electronic
Track: Il balletto delle stelle

Grab it from eMusic, at this URL. It's a MP3, as always with eMusic's freebies.

[GtrsRGr8]

Some names (of composers) come up again and again. And it's almost a guarantee that those whose names do that are among the better composers.

The name Antonin Dvorak comes up again and again, and he is well known as being that of a great classical music composer. And, today, courtesy of YourClassical and probably other benefactors, we can get a free MP3 piece from his body of work.

It is Cypresses: When Thy Sweet Glances. It is a 2 minute, 39 second rendition which comes from a Naxos album, Dvorak - Works for String Quartet - Cypresses - Quartet Movement in F major - Two Waltzes - Gavotte.

The works on the album, including our freebie of the day, is performed by Vlach Quartet Prague. I do not see the name of a conductor mentioned anywhere; I remember that, at least once before when a performance was by a quartet, there was no conductor, either. I take it that one must be considered optional when a quartet performs--the next time that I talk to a classical music expert I'm going to try to find out why that is. As usual, when the YourClassical freebie of the day comes from a Naxos album, there is a dedicated webpage from Naxos about the album provided for us. Here's where to go to in order to view the webpage for today's donor album.

The piece is serene. Except for one spot in the piece the music is slow and low in volume. The violin is not overpowering, so my aversion to violin in classical music is not piqued by this piece.

Wanna take a listen for yourself and see what you think? Then navigate to this webpage. You can stream the piece from there or, by clicking on "Direct MP3 download link," you can directly download the piece to the device that you use to store and listen to MP3's.

This is Friday's YourClassical freebie, so we won't see the next one until Monday. Maybe we can persuade them one day to do it seven days a week . . . .

[cromag]

A new album from Steve Roach is available at Bandcamp -- it's "Name your own price," but $0 (Free) is acceptable.

Steve does Electronic/Space/Ambient music. This album, The Passing, seems to be Ambient -- think drifting, relaxing, maybe even "going to sleep" music. It consists of a single track, nearly 60 minutes long. It's an MP3 file, but at 320kbps it is very good quality. You'll get the album and a cover image. You can preview it at Bandcamp before committing to the download.

You will need to enter an email address -- a download link will be sent to you -- and you will be put on Steve Roach's mailing list. You can unsubscribe, but I haven't had any problems.

This is likely to be "Free" for a very limited period. Past free albums have gone up to $10 minimum in a week or so.

https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/the-passing

[pdops]

Thanks cromag. Grabbed it

[GtrsRGr8]

Likewise, thanks.

I have yet to listen to any of it, and I generally don't like electronic or space music, but when you said that it is "ambient . . . . drifting, relaxing, maybe even 'going to sleep' music," that hooked me.

I can't find it now, but somewhere on one of the webpages I noticed that the site was created for new artists to showcase their works. Lots of those around. But Roach's webpage mentioned that the works (not his, necessarily) are sometimes in high-quality, it even mentioned flac. That seems to set the website apart from those with similar goals. However, a person might have to actually pay money to get the higher quality.

[GtrsRGr8]

I am terrible at using the search features on this website, but as far as I can determine, this has been mentioned only on the "News" thread, and on the "Lounge" thread. You may be like me and "never" go on either one, so I'm going to post this here.

Amazon has a music subscription service. Hardly a surprise, since they sell probably "tons" of digital music. Instead of telling you about all of the plans and things, let me just direct you to this webpage, where I'm sure that Amazon will make sure that they tell you everything that you could possibly want to know about it.

If you check into the plans, would you please comment--giving your opinions, etc. Pretty please? Thank you.

[GtrsRGr8]

Get Mazurka No. 1 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 6: No. 1 from Amazon, free.

The piece comes from an album called (in part) The Mazurka Diary, published by, or a part of a series called, "Berlin Classics." Classical concert pianist Anna Gourari is the sole performer on the entire album, it seems. For your convenience, I'm providing the URL for the (English language) Wikipedia webpage about her.

One of the primary reasons that I'm posting this free piece is to remind people who had known in the past, but forgotten, and inform people who did not know about it all, that Amazon provides a huge number of free tracks of music, including classical music. To start your exploration of the classical titles, I suggest that you start here.

I'm having great difficulty finding out more information about the album from which this free piece comes. No matter, I suppose; I can tell you that the free piece that we get is wonderfully done. BTW--being sold at Amazon, it is subject to receiving ratings and this piece has 7, with an average rating of 4.8 stars.

The free piece is 3 minutes, 19 seconds long. I am all but certain that it is an MP3. This looks like a good webpage from which to download the piece.

The length of the offer on this piece for free is indefinite, as far as I know. I think that that holds true for many, if not all, of Amazon's free tracks.

Enjoy. I think that you will.

[GtrsRGr8]

Alexander Street's newest free download "of the week" (it's actually about every two weeks) is available for download.

A little information, from Alexander Street, about the free piece:
This week's download features the Violin Concerto in E minor, op.64 by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847). This recording is performed by the Luxembourg Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Dimitri Chorafas, featuring violinist Jean-Pierre Wallez.

This recording is performed by Luxembourg Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Louis de Froment.

Unfortunately, that's about all that I can tell you. When I was trying to download a Naxos free album the first part of this month, I accidentally wiped out all of my automatic logins, including the one for Alexander Street. So far, I haven't been able to find a solution or workaround to the problem.

However, here is the webpage to go to in order to start the process of getting your free download. If you are not logged in, you will need to do that. Then, if not sooner, there should appear a bright blue "Download" button superimposed on Felix Mendelssohn's picture. Click it.