Classical Music

One other problem (often shared with Apple Music’s interface) is that there is no breadcrumb trail to tell you where you are.

For instance, I chose the “Violoncello” category in Idagio. And it’s right now playing a nice selection of music featuring that instrument.

But after a couple of minutes of web browsing and other stuff, I had forgotten what I was listening to. All it shows you (that grey bar at the bottom) is which track you’re listening to.

Okay, I like the category I’m listening to. But I forgot what I had chosen as a category. What if I want to play this again? There’s no way to know.

And there’s no list of the tracks that have been playing, at least in this mode (in other modes you do see a playlist). But if you can remember that you had chose “Violoncello” and click back on that category, you can see a playlist. But the current track isn’t highlighted from within this playlist. Maybe that’s not a big thing in this case, but it show the lack of spit-and-polish.

But without a breadcrumb trail (whether back to categories or to previous or next tracks in the playlist), it makes it very difficult to take note of things that you like and perhaps find more like it. Apple Music does a much better job of this. But unfortunately their interface is so crammed with stuff, the breadcrumb trails usually get lost in the thousands of loaves of bread cluttering the app.

Yes, a nice dramatic piece. I did find it on Apple Music: Guiomar Novaes, The Pro Musica Symphony & Hans Swarowsky. From 2008. This album has three tracks on it...apparently this whole piece in parts I, II, and III. Always nice to find better audio quality than YouTube but at least you can find a lot of stuff on YouTube.

This is one of the greatest concertos ever written. Beethoven wrote 5 concertos, of which I think the Emperor is the best. Mendelssohn violin concerto is in MHO one of the greatest concertos ever done. Although, it is listed as a rhapsody Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue should also be counted. 

The first listing that came up for it on Apple Music was: Itzhak Perlman: Mendelssohn / Bruch: Violin Concertos. Listening now.

Beethoven was not a fan of piano concertos. He only wrote them when paid. Imagine what a 6th concerto would have been like if some one had just been willing to fork over some Marks. 

It must be difficult for the trans people. Is it she/ hers or he/him. Or maybe just it?

Last year, Apple bought out a classical music streaming company, Primephonic and will soon be launching (within a week or so) a new Apple Classical Music service derived from that purchase. It is (theoretically) included at no extra charge, although I received an email from the Homosexual Corporation whose Rainbows used to stand for the multi-colored Apple logo instead of Super Bowl abomination, that they are raising their prices.

After that abomination that Apple sponsored at the Super Bowl, I don't see how I can in good conscience give them any more of my money than I have to.

So I'm checking out (again) the free (or paid) app, Idagio. I had tried out this service several years ago but didn't stick with it for whatever reason.

But now I'm motivated to dump the Homosexual Corporation that supports Abominations at the Super Bowl. All my Frank stuff I have in digital form and don't need Apple Music for it. But I do like listening to classical.

And, frankly, the new service from Apple could be the cat's meow (the homosexual's squeal?) but Apple Music, generally speaking, is yet another app that seems stitched together and is a bit of a pain in the ass to use. So I won't miss it too much if I dump it.

I had tried the free tier of Spotify and it is so riddled with obnoxious commercials as to be completely unusable at the free level. So that was a bust.

But I've been listening to Idagio this evening for a couple hours and the only commercials it has are self-advertisements for their service spoken in a soft, sophisticated British female voice. And they are fairly widely spaced. It's hardly an interruption at all.

True, with this free tier there is less control over making playlists and stuff like that. But I'm finding it's been a good way to discover music as well, although I haven't really done much but listen to Mendelssohn all night. But when a selection (songs, EP, album, I really don't know what I'm choosing) is finished, it will automatically start something similar. So now we've gone from Mendelssohn to Ignaz Moscheles, Symphony in C Major op. 81. And I like what I'm hearing from this.

For this free tier, you can save only 6 "favorites," so, again, you're limited in building and organizing a collection of albums, etc. But I can probably work around that. This will allow me to sample music I might not have otherwise. And you can at any time search for an artist or piece and find it and then (I think) play it (0r some of it, or most of it...I haven't yet determined what you get on a search...a whole symphony or just one track...or a couple of related tracks).

I'll experiment some more. And if I'm happy with Idagio (at least for classical music), I'll cancel the service offered by the Homosexual Music Perversion Company that Sponsors Abominations at Super Bowl halftime shows.

Idagio sounds like a good service. Luckily, living in the DFW area, I have easy access to, I believe, the oldest classical music station in the USA. Since they went online, I have even listened to it when traveling to Asia for business.  They have a few commercials, but I do not find them at all disturbing. A few times each day they have "commercial free" hours.  It was a life-saver for me in December of 2021. It kept me company/sane when my family and I were all prostrate with the KFF.

The one thing I don't like is that several of their long-time announcers retired over the last year, or so.  These guys had  deep voices like dark honey and knew a lot about music. They have been replaced by much younger announcers who have a somewhat less serious style, in my opinion. 


WRR.FM

I will look now and seer if I can stream that. Great. I found it available from streaming on myTunerRadio, my usual go-to app on my iPhone or iPad for streaming radio stations. Started right up with Beethoven's Piano Sonata #12. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll try to get an idea of how dense the commercials are. [Ran into one break. It was fairly short and not obnoxious.]

As for sound quality, it sounds good. I think a lot of the Classical stations (including libtard King FM) stream at higher bit rates. As for Idagio, here's the info according to a review at PC Magazine:



From what I understand, 192 is a fairly high fidelity bit rate. There is higher, of course. But could I hear the difference on even my relatively good stereo system? Probably not.