A reminder for anyone confused or otherwise distracted by all the Mac crap flying around on this page of late: Radio 3's Beethoven downloads have started to appear. Symphonies one through five available as I type.
[update 10/6: iTunes users might like to explore ctrl-clicking (or right-clicking) on the tracks once they're in iTunes. Get Info then click the Options tab: you can set the track start time, which allows you to skip the three minutes of the Radio 3 announcer's introduction. I'd imagine something similar is possible in other mp3 players. Note also that the downloads are only 128kbps stereo, and don't have full tag information. Notably, the 'Composer' line isn't set -- you can add that information in the same info panel in iTunes.]
[Edit 12/6/2005: link fixed]
Interesting. I’ve just finished listening to #5 (on the crappy headphones on my work PC); first impression was audible artefacts in the spoken introduction, ie quality of the mp3 is a bit marginal, but once the music starts doesn’t seem too bad. I’ll hook up the Mac to my home stereo this weekend and see how it holds up on decent equipment.
Hm. No time to listen this weekend, just did a brief check on #1 and it sounds much better on the Mac and 5.1 system. No compression artefacts here, so it wasn’t the mp3’s fault, but the PC. I should have known.
Symphonies 1, 2 and 4 sound technically pretty good to me; 3 had some dropouts which I doubt were my iPod. 5 I haven’t listened to yet.
I’ll leave artistic criticism to people who actually know what they’re talking about.
Yeah, I’ve found problems in #3 as well. I’ve mailed the BBC, let’s hope they publish a better version.
brief reminder: symphonies 6-9 are available for download now (#6 will be removed today, though)