classic.

February 13, 2005 3:58 PM

Classic Cat describes itself as "the free classical music directory," and offers links to 3rd-party-hosted downloadable recordings, sliced and diced by hits, composer, performer, and more. There are active fora. Given the old-school look of the site, I was surprised not to find it in my repost search.
posted by mwhybark (13 comments total)

Thanks to you, mwhybark, I finally can hear Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. Tip o' the fedora.
posted by alumshubby at 4:13 PM on February 13, 2005

Thanks for the link mwhybark. Nice.
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies at 4:28 PM on February 13, 2005

Thanks. Good find mwhybark.
posted by Cranberry at 4:30 PM on February 13, 2005

Wow, lots of great classical MP3s! This is very very cool. thanks!!
posted by vacapinta at 4:47 PM on February 13, 2005

Oh, happy. Thank you!
posted by Wolfdog at 5:23 PM on February 13, 2005

Excellent link mwhybark!
posted by AstroGuy at 5:23 PM on February 13, 2005

Great find, thank you! I'll be here all night instead of doing homework...and they say Mozart makes you smarter...hrmmph!
Satyagraha
posted by thebestsophist at 7:26 PM on February 13, 2005

What a great reference. My first port of call is usually classical archives ... but those are mostly midis with a 5 download max for visitors. It's not great listening but the site is is comprehensive and if you have sibelius or the much much cheaper noteworthy composer, you can turn the midi into a score. Midis are precise but mechanical Classical Cat is a welcome supplement to capturing music and moving it from my pc to my fingers.
posted by missbossy at 9:31 PM on February 13, 2005

Thanks. Through Classic Cat I found The Piano Society ("Free MP3 Recordings of Classical Piano Masterpieces").
posted by Termite at 11:25 PM on February 13, 2005

Thanks for the tip. The first piece I downloaded sounded like one of my old Dead audience tapes with lots of throat clearing, sniffling and coughing. The Piano Society is great, though, and I'm listening to Bach fuges as I type.
posted by fixedgear at 2:14 AM on February 14, 2005

Just what I've been looking for! mwhybark, you are my Valentine.
posted by thinkpiece at 5:55 AM on February 14, 2005

Just about the first thing I found was 2 CDs of choral music form the International Rimini Choral Workshops. Excellent, and many thanks!
posted by carter at 11:02 AM on February 14, 2005

Wonderful link. The Chicago Public Library used to have its classical collection online as streaming audio, but they dismantled it for some reason. This is a great replacement -- good find! For Scarlatti fans, be sure to check out John Sankey's fanatical page of sonata scores.
posted by buncombe at 12:44 PM on February 14, 2005