Internet developments
free booklet downloads before purchasing - ? texts and translations

Downloading is gaining popularity apace. Cedille Records of Chicago has today introduced downloads in the CD-quality FLAC format.

They have also addressed one problem which has made me hesitant to generally recommend download puchasing to our readers. We have been concerned for many years with the importance of background information in CD booklets and particularly of legible texts and translations, which are too often skimped as a cost saver.

Now, visitors to Cedille’s Web site can download a free PDF of the booklet before deciding whether to buy the recording itself in either format. They won’t have to download an album at all to get the accompanying CD booklet. These are quite thorough and always include texts and translations of any sung (or even spoken) material.

Cedille has been selling MP3 album downloads directly to the public from its Web site since May 2008, its catalog having 116 principal CD titles ranging from solo keyboard works to complete symphonies and operas. These include world-premiere recordings and CD premieres of important compositions, plus the commercial recording debuts of some celebrated artists.

The label’s newest release is the recording debut of Baroque Band, Chicago’s new period-instrument ensemble in works by Biber, to be followed by The Balkan Project, the label’s second album with the Cavatina Duo (flutist Eugenia Moliner and guitarist Denis Azabagic) and the world-premiere recording of Beethoven’s recently discovered Piano Trio in E-flat, Hess 47, with the Beethoven Project Trio, which gave its world-premiere performance last year in Chicago.

Let's keep a watch and see whether they meet too our other concern; inclusion of easily accessible texts and translations as an automatic expectation.

Contact for further details natsilv@aol.com

Peter Grahame Woolf 20/4/2010