OnClassical

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OnClassical
OnClassical
Opened: Before November 2003
Platforms: Platform independent
Format: WAV (.wav)
Restrictions: None, Creative Commons License
Catalogue: Only own recordings
Preview: Entire piece in (low resolution) MPEG Layer 3 (.mp3)
Protocol: Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http://)
Availability: World Wide Web
Features: Flash reader, downloadable art-covers
Website: www.onclassical.com

OnClassical is a small independent record label based in Bassano del Grappa, Italy. It features classical music mostly for piano or chamber ensemble.

Contents

[edit] History

Founded in April 2003 by Alessandro Simonetto, pianist, producer and sound engineer, it enlists selected first-prize international contest winners and young talented musicians who do not hold exclusive contracts with managers or traditional recording houses.

OnClassical was the first Italian label to produce, realize, distribute and sell recordings through the web and amongst the first to apply the new philosophy of Creative Commons.

The website started as a simple collection of classical music performances, still not grouped into albums or CDs. Only in January 2004 (second version) it evolved as an online record label. The third, of February 2005 (the 14th), and the last version, of July 2007 (the 14th), have always maintained the graphic unchanged (white blackground with yellow left border) and the main concepts tied to contents and licences.

[edit] The new version

With the most recent version of the site it have been introduced substantial innovationes such as the only publication of self-produced recordings (as realized by the founder) and a close selection of the better productions. In particular albums are now sold in CD uncompressed format (PCM / WAV, at 44.1 kHz * 16bit, with no protection) to avoid problems tied to the quality maintenaince due to the eventual decompression of compressed files (as MP3, Ogg vorbis) in the operations of burning-to-cd. Actually at OnClassical it is possible to download the exact copy of the master as originally produced.

OnClassical logo
OnClassical logo

Moreover visitors may previously listen to the entire CD, compressed in low-quality MP3 files, which are Creative Commons BY-NC-SA, 1.0 licensed. Each album is sold at a convenient/variable price starting from 4.50 euros up to 16 euros. An alert informs the purchaser that artists earn 50% from profits given to downloadings of their albums.

Under the new release, the site also contains some new features such as the possibility to print high quality art-covers (available through PDF format) and the grant of permission to use all files derived from encoding of the high-qualityalbums on own iPods, Creative and portable devices.

[edit] The quality

OnClassical, however, claims for each recording a high standard of professionalism: the recordings are made with particular care, capturing only natural sounds which are not successively manipulated. Renowned piano manufacturers, Bösendorfer, evaluated Alessandro Simonetto's recording made at Capri isle, in which he reproduced a performance by the pianist Gianluca Luisi, as excellent work [1].

[edit] Collection

Today the catalogue has only 24 titles to choose and some new recordings, as the complete Bach's board works, signed by the Saarbrücken's Bach winner Gianluca Luisi, are announced. Amongst the titles there are some world first recordings such as the complete Album für die Jugend by Robert Schumann (of 70 pieces instead of the traditional 43) played by the Italian pianist Marco Tezza, and the album Verdi's Fantasie Brillanti with unedited violin transcriptions from Giuseppe Verdi's operas played by Luca Fanfoni, a Paganini competition winner.

[edit] Curiosities

The name OnClassical means On[Line]Classical[Music] or On[about] Classical[ Music]). The motto of the label is A new Way to Think about Music where the word think is rotated by 180 degrees and coloured by green.

[edit] The Artists

  • Harpsichord
    • Stefano Demicheli (OnClassical compilation)
  • Guitar
    • Pablo Lentini Riva (from the 3rd v.)
  • Double-bass
    • Daniele Roccato (OnClassical compilation)
  • Choirs
    • Don Kosaken Chor Wanja Hlibka (male soloists)
    • Elysium (female vocal quartet)
This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy certain standards for completeness.
Revisions and sourced additions are welcome.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bösendorfer to Alessandro Simonetto's recordings

[edit] Other references

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] General and useful links

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