Download to joy as BBC offers nine Beethoven symphonies for free

by Staff, Brand Republic 27-May-05, 14:00

LONDON - BBC Radio 3 is offering downloadable live performances of all of Beethoven's nine symphonies from next month, part of the corporation's Beethoven Experience.

The symphonies, which were performed by the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester and conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, will be available to download as MP3 files here from June 7.

The free downloads will compliment the BBC's Beethoven season, which sees a week of TV shows devoted to the composer broadcast, as well as output across Radio 3 and interactive.

It marks the corporation's largest focus to date on a single creative artist and includes a three-part drama/documentary series called 'Beethoven', starring Paul Rhys and presented by conductor Charles Hazlewood, charting the composer's troubled life and examining some of his greatest works.

The MP3 offer was set up to gauge audiences' appetite for music downloads and guide the corporation's future strategy for audio downloads and on-demand content.

"Downloading technologies can transform the value we deliver to listeners and make our programmes more accessible for both new and existing audiences," said Simon Nelson, controller of BBC Radio and Music Interactive.

The downloads will be available for one week after broadcast starting from June 7 till June 30.

"We hope this experiment brings more people into contact with Beethoven's work and encourages them to explore it further themselves," Roger Wright, controller Radio 3, added.

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