What download have you bought?

[Cockney Sparrow]

Not quite as good a bargain from Audite as the Prokofiev Cantata last year..........

I've listened to the Prokofiev Cantata (for the 20th Anniv of the October revolution) a fair bit - so thanks for the tip as to the economical download. (Although, a friend who has the two (nay three - incl original N Jarvi) recordings rates the BBC MM (free CD) Elder performance very highly still. And, to mention again, performances by the PO under Ashkenazy in Cardiff on 18th and R Festival Hall on 20th May.

[Beef Oven!]

Pre-ordered, waiting.

[Beef Oven!]

24/96 Hi-Res download from Qobuz

Good value for a double-album of 1 hour 45 minutes of music £8.62

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It makes me want to play Connect 4

[cloughie]

It makes me want to play Connect 4

Or maybe the Stones ‘Between the Buttons’

[HighlandDougie]

Vaughan Williams
Serenade to Music*; Oboe Concerto in A minor; Flos Campi(Flower of the Field)**;
Concerto for Piano & Orchestra in C major.
*Carla Huhtanen(sop), Emily D’Angelo(m-s), Lawrence Wiliford(tenor), Tyler Duncan(baritone),
Sarah Jeffrey(oboe), Teng Li(viola), Louis Lortie(piano), Elmer Iseler Singers,
Toronto SO, Peter Ouindjian

Thanks, BBM, for saving me the bother of typing out the above (a quick copy and paste from WAYLTN). E-classical now have Chandos releases in their 24 bit for the price of 16 bit, as well as Bis, Harmonia Mundi etc. No great bargain (just under £12) but a very attractive collection - and Ouindjian (as is evidenced from earlier Toronto SO Live recordings of his symphonies) clearly likes RVW.

[Beef Oven!]

DSCH symphonies 4 & 11
Andris Neslons, Boston Symphony Orchestra. DG download from Presto Classical.

Just received an email from Presto regarding this release and couldn't resist!

[HighlandDougie]

DSCH symphonies 4 & 11
Andris Neslons, Boston Symphony Orchestra. DG download from Presto Classical.

Just received an email from Presto regarding this release and couldn't resist!

Jumping on the bandwagon (see WHYBLTN, too), as my ADSL has just been upgraded ("boosté") by France Télécom to VDSL2 - and the maximum download speed increased accordingly from 2Mbps to 80Mbps, this seemed like a good way of celebrating the fact that it would take 3 minutes to download, rather than 3 hours+.

[Dave2002]

Jumping on the bandwagon (see WHYBLTN, too), as my ADSL has just been upgraded ("boosté") by France Télécom to VDSL2 - and the maximum download speed increased accordingly from 2Mbps to 80Mbps, this seemed like a good way of celebrating the fact that it would take 3 minutes to download, rather than 3 hours+.

That's an interesting point of view. You should check out what data rate you actually get.
I was recently made an "offer" by BT which might, arguably, double my download rate from around 30 Mbps to 60-70 Mbps, but I've not bitten on that yet. I haven't so far been able to work out how much the extra charges would be. At £10 a month it might just be interesting, but if the margins are more than that, then for me probably not interesting at all. Not sure if the offer will still be there by the time I've figured it out, but 30 Mbps is, for the most part, reasonably useful, so not necessarily an offer I should go for. The charges are somewhat arcane and not completely transparent. I suspect an "offer" to just get me to spend more and boost BT's profits - another of their attempts to get me to "save money"!

[HighlandDougie]

That's an interesting point of view. You should check out what data rate you actually get.
I was recently made an "offer" by BT which might, arguably, double my download rate from around 30 Mbps to 60-70 Mbps, but I've not bitten on that yet.

Orange (and my Fritzbox router which is configured for VDSL2) indicate a maximum of 88Mbps. Based on the nearest connected server, Ookla is consistently indicating just under 80Mbps for d/load and just over 16Mbps for u/load. Proximity to the telephone exchange seems to be an important factor with speed loss (the technology is copper-based). As our village will never get fibre optic cable (we are simply too small and too rural), Orange's decision to upgrade us to VDSL2 (a decision in which our tech-savvy mayor had a part to play),has come as a benefit - and, so far, it seems that I'll be paying the same as before (which was probably too much for what I was getting). Having been so used to 2Mbps at best for the past 9 years (except for a trial increase a couple of years ago which ended when it was deemed that upping the download speed made lines too unstable), I would have been very happy with 8Mbps. Anyway, downloads and streaming now become much more feasible. And, as to BT, well, sup with a long spoon in my experience.

[Dave2002]

That's a pretty good data rate, but whereas your earlier 2 Mbps was probably a pain, 80 Mbps is very likely to be more than enough for most practical purposes at the current time. I can remember when we first had broadband around 2002. it was under 1 Mbps, and we thought it was fast - and we pushed it up to 4 Mbps within a relatively short time. We have managed on around 10 Mbps for some time, with hardly any major problems, but now have had another speed bump. Now we are very close to the exchange box I'm told - perhaps 200 yards, and getting round about 30 Mbps, which is good enough for current needs I think. Enjoy your new much better streaming and shorter download times.

[HighlandDougie]

DSCH symphonies 4 & 11
Andris Neslons, Boston Symphony Orchestra. DG download from Presto Classical.

Just received an email from Presto regarding this release and couldn't resist!

I downloaded it from Qobuz - the track order is reversed so that what is shown as the first movement of the 4th is in fact the final movement of the 11th. I've emailed them but, in the meantime, caveat emptor (or use Presto)

[Beef Oven!]

Jumping on the bandwagon (see WHYBLTN, too), as my ADSL has just been upgraded ("boosté") by France Télécom to VDSL2 - and the maximum download speed increased accordingly from 2Mbps to 80Mbps, this seemed like a good way of celebrating the fact that it would take 3 minutes to download, rather than 3 hours+.

Just don’t get it. Downloaded quickly in Turkey, why so long in modern western-European France?

[Dave2002]

Just don’t get it. Downloaded quickly in Turkey, why so long in modern western-European France?

I think the clue lies in the reference to rural environments. Probably lives by the side of a lake, half way up a mountain, in a cleft between peaks, with the nearest town being 40 miles away. Reached by a tortuous and winding single track road. Idyllic!

Maybe my fantasies are running away here.

[HighlandDougie]

I think the clue lies in the reference to rural environments. Probably lives by the side of a lake, half way up a mountain, in a cleft between peaks, with the nearest town being 40 miles away. Reached by a tortuous and winding single track road. Idyllic!

Maybe my fantasies are running away here.

Not entirely - half way up a mountain, oui; peaks around, oui; Nice - 35 miles away; no lake (but a river down below); road is two-track but to unsuspecting visitors is a bit terrifying when it goes through about five miles of a gorge then winds up here from the valley below. Of no commercial interest whatsoever to the providers of high-speed internet so it has required the local authority to intervene throughout the rural Alpes-Maritimes by paying for the installation of the infrastructure, then hoping that operators such as France Télécom/Orange will step in at more local level. Old-fashioned wired telephony is a difficult yoke for Western European countries to shake off so, where that tradition has been less pervasive as in many African countries (I don't know about Anatolia), the adoption of relatively infrastructure free (masts are a lot cheaper than strung lines) wireless/mobile telephony etc makes a lot of sense. Anyway, we're here to talk about downloads...

I need to listen to the Nelsons/DSCH 4 at a proper volume, i.e. quite loud. Not easy this afternoon with thunder reverberating round the neighbouring peaks.