A PASSIONATO

posted by James Reel

If you’ve been frustrated by the utter failure of the iTunes music store and other download purveyors to handle classical music in a logical way that is rational to classical-music lovers—in other words, not littering the catalog with crossover junk, making it easier to search by composer than by artist—a new download service has just opened in Britain. It’s called Passionato, and, not having tried to purchase anything myself, I’m not sure whether or not it’s legal to use in the U.S. (prices are given in pounds only, not dollars). But the site does look interesting. Passionato has tracks from Naxos and the Universal group (DG and such), and probably some other sources. But possibly not enough yet.

I did two sample searches to see how easy it would be to buy music by prominent B-list composers Albert Roussel and Walter Piston. Answer: There are several items available for each, but the offerings don’t reflect the breadth of material available on CD from a source like Arkivmusic.com or Amazon.com. (Piston would be in big trouble at Passionato if Naxos hadn’t taken a shine to him.) Furthermore, although it’s better than iTunes, the database has been compiled by people who don’t always know what they’re doing, especially when it comes to figuring out performers. The performer in Piston’s String Sextet, for example, is given as “Kuchar.” That’s actually the conductor of some of Piston’s orchestral pieces, not the name of the ensemble that plays the Sextet. And, even more tellingly, a Chandos recording of the Vaughan Williams “London” Symphony is credited to a conductor named “Williams.” Presumably as in “Vaughan Williams.” It’s actually Richard Hickox. And this is for a recording that Passionato is pimping on its home page.

I’m not entirely impressed, but the new company may yet get these things under control. You can read about the company’s launch here.