Passionato is proud to have been recognised by The Guardian as one of the Top 100 websites for the Year Ahead -Top 6 for music sites!

It’s a great accolade for a brand new company and one that raises expectations of what we can achieve. But we’re aiming high!

Just one of the many new technological developments on the horizon is a new Player designed especially with the Classical music fan in mind. Watch this space for news on that. We’re also constantly aiming to bring our customers better value so we’ve introduced several money-saving offers, such as 50% off Universal Duos, 50% off EMI Classics for Pleasure and LSO Live MP3s from £4.99. We’re also adding more labels to the site all the time such as LSO Live and the LPO labels.

We realise that there’s lots of hard work ahead if we’re to meet the high expectations of Classical music lovers but we’re excited by the challenge and feel sure you’re going to love some of the new developments that’ll be happening soon.

All the best for 2009!

1. The BachPod
Perhaps the ultimate classical music gift this Christmas, hence its pole position on this list. Who would have thought the entire musical output of J.S. Bach could be held in the palm of one’s hand? In the days when CD was the only option, a sizeable chunk of your shelf space would have to have been given over to such a monumental project as the Hanssler Classic Complete Bach Edition which runs to a staggering 172 CDs. Alongside the Bach Edition, the BachPod holds an additional 63 GB of available memory to add your own music. Attractively packaged, with 3 back-up DVDs to protect loss of data what could please a classical enthusiast more? Oh and the performances themselves? Consistently, interpretatively, excellent.

2. The Squeezebox

The main argument against digital music is that you have to play it through your computer – and we all know what that means: tinny speakers that would make cats and dogs run for cover and high above it all - if your PC is as old as mine - the roaring and humming as the fan struggles to cool the system, forcing the listener to turn up said tinny speakers even more. What a cacophony. No longer! Hi-Fi has moved into the world of the digital download and now you can purchase systems which free you from the shackles of the office space like the great sounding Squeezebox which combines the role of high definition MP3 player with that of a digital radio - radio without any loss of signal or distortion. Click here for more details. Available at all good UK Hi-Fi shops and online.

3. Xitel MP3 Streamer

If you do not wish to dump the existing Hi-Fi system (and why should you?), why not try this gadget from Xitel? It allows you to connect your PC/Mac up to your Hi-Fi delivering that extra quality of sound that you have always come to expect from a traditional Hi-Fi set-up. Click here for more details. For list of UK retailers click here.

4. Sonus Multi-Room Music System

Taking the whole thing a stage further is the Multi-Room Music System from Sonos. The easy to use controller allows digital music to be piped throughout your house with a flexibility that is absolutely breathtaking. Suddenly the whole concept of huddling round your computer to listen to badly distorted music will seem like a distant memory…. Click here for further details.

5. Handel: Messiah - Soloists; The English Concert; Pinnock
Of course, what you need is something to play on your new hi-tech system. Can we suggest a few ideas from from our rich catalogues of classical recordings? Let’s start, naturally, with Handel’s Messiah and the recording from Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert on DG Archiv. Although it uses period instruments and interpretative practices the warmth emanating from this performance will make it appeal to both traditional and period fans.

6. Puccini: La bohème - Netrebko; Villazón; Bavarian RSO; de Billy
Hype or the real thing? Having listened to this new recording of arguably the most popular opera of all time (and the most recorded), I can say that Rolland Villazon and Anna Netrebko deliver one of the most heartfelt performances I have ever heard of Bohème, superbly paced by the conductor Betrand de Billy. This time the hype is more than justified.

7. Anna Netrebko - Souvenirs
Following on from the above, and an excellent addition to it, is Anna Netrebko’s new album, Souvenirs a mixture of bonbons and sweatmeats to revive even the most jaded palate. In the long run it may not figure amongst her greatest recordings but for pure escapism and for just simply listening to such amazing vocal chords that Netrebko possesses it is hard to beat.

8. Tchaikovsky: Manfred - RLPO; Petrenko
The symphony now, and we have up and coming conducting star Vassily Petrenko directing the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s programmatic work, Manfred. Like many of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies, Manfred suffers from structural weaknesses but with Petrenko such matters are irrelevant as we swept up in a storm of swirling emotions.

9. Vernon Handley and Richard Hickox
Britain lost two of its finest conductors this year in the form of Vernon Handley and Richard Hickox. Trawling through their vast and excellent back-catalogues it has been difficult to pick two personal favourites, but anyway - Handley’s dramatic recording of Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony and Hickox’s recording of the original version of A London Symphony will demonstrate to anyone the abundant skills of these two master conductors.

10. Vivaldi: Cello Concertos - Chang; LCO; Warren-Green
We end - as we began - with the baroque, this time in the form of Vivaldi’s Cello Concertos in an album recorded by EMI’s leading cellist of the moment, Han-Na Chang. Chang’s technical abilities go cap in hand with some of the most heart-warming, but also at the same time, dramatic, playing you can expect to hear of these pieces. The accompanists are the London Chamber Orchestra conducted by Christopher Warren-Green.

Hopefully the above have inspired you to take the dip into digital classical music this Christmas. The Gift of Music has never been so simple!

The complete works of Bach on an i-pod!

The BachPod is a wonderful thing. The complete works of Bach (originally 172 CDs worth!) on a limited edition 120GB Apple iPod Classic. Really good recordings too as they’re the Helmuth Rilling recordings made for Hanssler Classic. Thomas Quasthoff, Christoph Pregardien and Christine Schafer are just some of the top-notch names that were involved in this incredible project. And because it’s a 120 GB i-pod, it means that there’s still plenty of room left for hundreds more albums. Click here for more details.

One of the albums of 2008 from the young French Quartet

This is a quite beautiful recording. From the uber-cool nu-wave/blue note sleeve, through the opening attack of the Debussy to the quite extraordinary reading of the Ravel, this is something worth indulging in.

The highly lyrical Debussy is played with swagger and purpose, never outstaying its welcome, tearing along decisively to a satisfactory conclusion. The Faure is ridiculously exciting for such a swooning piece of romanticism and the Ravel, the first two movements in particular, delves at times into an atmosphere akin to a late-night jazz club. The impeccable timing and fast-paced changes are also reminiscent of jazz musicians which lends the whole album an invigorating improvisational feel.

The sound is crisp and clear, putting the listener at the heart of the recording, sometimes too close - hear the somewhat disturbing deep breaths 5 minutes into the first movement of the Ravel, but even that adds to the immediate nature of the recording.

MP3 available on Passionato.com for £7.99 

With ENO, Passionato is making available 10 free ‘Opera In English’ downloads from 32 carefully selected tracks from Chandos’ award winning ‘Opera In English’ range. All the available tracks are taken from operas that are being performed in ENO’s current or upcoming seasons and includes music from Cavalleria Rusticana; Pagliacci; The Barber Of Seville; Partenope; Aida; Boris Godunov; Riders to the Sea; The Magic Flute; La bohème; Jenůfa; Peter Grimes; Così Fan Tutte; Madame Butterfly and Dido & Aeneas.

This offer, which runs until July next year, will be promoted in the brand new ENO Digital Opera Guide – a new digital initiative launched earlier this year and the first of its kind in the UK – as well as being featured on ENO’s website, production micro-sites and eBulletins. Registered users of Passionato will also be able to win tickets to ENO performances in a series of competitions that will run on the site. This partnership marks the first time ENO have ever offered free downloads to their audience.

ENO’s artistic director John Berry welcomed the initiative:

“With Passionato’s help we are not only able to provide audiences with innovative and exciting online content but also give people a free taste of the great music in store when they come to ENO.”

Please Click Here to enter the ENO supersite on Passionato.

James Glicker, founder and CEO of Passionato said of both initiatives:

“The response to Passionato’s launch two months ago has been incredible and we already have over 200,000 tracks available to download, with more being added by the hour. By forging this partnership with English National Opera we’re showing that with some creative thinking we can truly change the way people access and consume classical music.”

Become a fan of Passionato today!

The new album from the doe-eyed Russian soprano is one to remember

You’ve got to hand it to Anna Netrebko. Beautiful, talented, rich and now a mother, how does she find time to fit in recordings and live performances?

Souvenirs is her latest offering (it came out in the middle of November) - a collection of lighter songs and arias, some of them less than familiar but all of them rich in melody and vitality. The album opens with ‘Heia, in den Bergen’, from Kalman’s operetta ‘The Gypsy Princess’, and what an entrance it is - a jaunty Hungarian happy-clappy oompah tune that really isn’t typical of the rest of the album and which is only recaptured in the Carmenesque showtune ‘Meine Lippen..’ from Giuditta. A lot of the album is fairly melancholic and lovelorn, allowing Ms Netrebko to wrap her lungs around an underswell of pithy emotion, something she does with great success.

For me the highlight is the utterly beguiling lullaby ‘Schlof, sche, mein Vogele’ where Netrebko retreats into dark inner-places that have not been apparent before - it’s perhaps the least reassuring lullaby I’ve ever heard and would scare the pants of most babies. Shame then, that’s it’s followed by an appalling performance of LLoyd-Webber’s ‘Pie Jesu’ that sounds as though it was recorded in a portakabin church in suburban Pointless-on-Thames. Of the better-known songs Grieg’s ‘Solveig’s Song’ is beautifully played and sung though her duet with Elina Garanca on ‘Barcarolle’ slides disappointingly into innocuousness.

‘Souvenirs’ is a very good album - not great, but it captures Anna Netrebko in a generally intimate, more human, mood. Her singing’s great, the choice of repertoire is varied enough to interest collectors’ of specialist repertoire and those who just like a good tune. An album to be proud of. Apart from ‘Pie Jesu’.

Incidentally, you can click on the highlighted songs in this blog to hear 60 second samples of them and make up your own mind. Or get the MP3 at Passionato.com for £7.99 by simply clicking here.

We were fortunate to see him conduct Prokoviev’s ”Romeo and Juliet”, one of the great pieces of Russian 20th century music, and something that is right in this Maestro’s sweet spot. I had heard that Gergiev was reticent, but from the opening minute he was talkative and charming. His approach is to take apart the piece like the Shenker analysis we used to do in college. (For the uninitiated, this is a technique where a piece is reduced to its key note progressions; quite often a symphony movement that is 10-15 minutes long can be reduced to only 5 or 6 notes). Gergiev infallibly honed in on the key melody, wherever it could be found. He frequently explained how a phrase might move from the strings through the winds and into the brass, He lingered over key transitions, with the result that each section of the piece developed its own mood.

He paid special attention to key phrasing, often singing his approach to illustrate. And boy, is he funny! Everybody in the gallery was laughing at his facial expressions, which often exaggerated the way he wanted a line played. He frequently related the activity in the music to what might appear on stage (it is a ballet, after all). And he had some remarkable, humorous segues. At one point, he was telling the strings how Wagner had no feel for string music, and how poorly he wrote for these sections. It was fascinating.

The orchestra didn’t laugh nearly as much as we did. Maybe they’re tired of his jokes, or maybe it was an off day…but I would listen to him take apart a piece any time.

He also is a very clever motivator. For example, in the opening minutes, the first violins played listlessly and out of tune. Instead of telling them that, he put them through their paces, under the guise of getting the right phrasing. After a minute or two of drilling them, they pulled together and sounded great. If on  the other hand, he had  told them that they were playing out of tune, they would have glowered at him and been difficult to handle for the rest of the afternoon.

When you see the brilliance of someone like Gergiev, you realise how crazy the premise of the reality TV show ‘Maestro’ was. Here is a man of immense specialised skill, who has worked intensely in his area for 30 years, who is certainly in many ways a genious, and yet who is endowed with great leadership capabilities. Expecting someone to come in off the street and compete would be like asking someone to perform heart surgery. Luckily, listening to classical music is not a life or death situation, or lots of bodies  would have been strewn over the BBC studios.

I envy those of you that have tickets to the concert.

We also put in a download manager. This enables you to download all the tracks in an album at once, rather than clicking on each individual track. We actually had a download manager when we launched in September, but we had to design a new one, since the rush of visitors to our site exceeded our estimates, and the download manager imploded.

We have lots of new plans for the site. Tell us what you think of the ones I’ve mentioned above, or suggest new ones.