Apple Music Classical, review: at last, a classical streaming service that didn’t drive me mad
Until now it’s been a fact of life that streaming platforms and classical music do not get on. Classical music is just too vast and complicated for platforms designed with the simple pop categories of ‘artist’ and ‘song’ in mind. This is why I found searching for my favourite classical recordings on Spotify such a dismal and frustrating experience. And it’s hard to design a platform that’s equally good for the hard-core classical enthusiast and the newcomer with a vague notion that they like, say, Baroque music and need some help finding her way around.
Apple Music Classical, which launched today, has been shrewdly designed to capture both the fan and the novice. Having browsed the app for an hour or two I am pleased to say they’ve made an excellent job of it. You start by choosing one of four tabs, of which Listen Now is the most helpful for new listeners. There are also playlists of “Music by Moods” “Hidden Gems” and “Undiscovered Composers”.
Exclusive recordings, from among others, the London Symphony and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras can be found here. For a deeper, more informed dive into music there’s the Browse tab, which allows you to roam around Genres, Composers, Soloists, Periods etc, each broken into smaller chunks, such as “early 20th century”. Once there, well-known composers and works of the period will pop up automatically, but if you want to dive deeper into, say, Prokofiev, all 159 works will be offered, all available in multiple recorded versions.
The seriously nerdy can have fun with the specifics offered by the Search function. I typed in Opus 113, and found several dozen works with that opus number beginning with Schumann’s Märchenbilder (Fairy Tale Pictures). Next to it I saw the number 126, which I soon worked out meant “126 different versions available”, any of which I could listen to.
For those unfamiliar with classical music, this could be daunting, but I was in 7th heaven. For many if not yet all composers there’s a helpful short biography, written in a sweetly old-fashioned style that wouldn’t have been out of place on the old BBC Third Programme. Finally there’s a Library tab where you can store all your discoveries.
The app (part of the Apple Music service which costs £10.99 per month and which offers one month free as a trial) is remarkably easy to navigate, with discreet and genuinely appropriate suggestions for ‘you might also like this’ popping up here and there. Most crucially, the sound quality is terrific, crisp and clear and full-bodied, without that neon glare that afflicts classical music on other platforms.
For classical listeners, the platform will be a joy; whether Apple Music Classical will also bring joy to classical performers by significantly boosting their income remains to be seen.
Info: music.apple.com
