I was talking recently to a friend who works as a digital consultant and he asked me why I thought that take-up of digital delivery and downloading was slower in the UK than in the US. I pointed to the reasonably (just about) healthy retail presence here, the smallness 
of the country making overnight delivery of discs from mail-order concerns quite easy and, sadly, the continuing belief that downloaded music always sounds worse than the equivalent CD. Without going down that last alley, the one initiative, I suggested, that the major record companies had not really explored was to make certain releases only available to download (I know the DG and Decca Concerts have done that but they’re never marketed 
and you almost need to stumble across them 
to find them. And EMI has just released a Rattle Mahler Second…). But things are starting to change.

This month sees the launch of a new record company, Resonus Classics, which only offers downloads (and in four different formats from MP3 at 320kbps, via AAC at 256kbps, to FLAC and WAV – the last in sound quality that is superior to what you’d encounter on
an equivalent CD).

As co-director Adam Binks points out, “By stripping down our overheads in terms of manufacturing costs, we are able to launch a label that can focus on top-end artists and appealing, challenging repertoire that aims to satisfy the hardened collector as well as those just beginning their interest in classical music”. Resonus launches on March 28 with a suitably unique recording. The Eroica Quartet (four regulars on the London period-instrument scene) are joined by violinist Ken Aiso and members of his Aiso Quartet for a performance of the original 1825 version of Mendelssohn’s Octet. The cellist of the Eroica Quartet, David Watkin (who can often be seen playing in John Eliot Gardiner’s various period ensembles), explains that “you can hear that sometimes gawky, always skilful but not totally mature voice of Mendelssohn”. Mendelssohn, having written the Octet as a 16-year-old, went on to revise it at the ripe old age of 23, and that’s the version we usually hear. The following month will see a programme of chamber music by Judith Bingham played by Chamber Domaine – a collection of works that would not fit on a single CD, another of the advantages of a digital-only release. To learn more, check out resonusclassics.com.

One of my resolutions for 2011 – along with trying to shop at the butcher and fishmonger rather than at the supermarket, and not unrelated – is, where possible, to buy downloads from the record company itself, rather than through a third party. It’s hardly more trouble and it means that the money goes directly to the people who made the recording in the first place. It’s not always practical but for independent companies such as Chandos, Hyperion, Linn, Gimell, Dacapo, Naxos and no doubt many others, it seems eminently fair – and you also often get a wider choice when 
it comes to higher-resolution formats. For other labels I’m very happy to use the likes of iTunes and Ariama. And one own-label download site I admire a lot belongs to Hyperion. Its site is tasteful, elegant and beautifully conceived and continues to add little advances to make life for Hyperion fans that bit easier.

I like the way that the notes now “edit” themselves and focus on the work you’ve clicked on rather than the whole thing. Hyperion’s Recording of the Month as I write is the new offering from The Cardinall’s Musick and Andrew Carwood – a splendid confection built around the celebrated Miserere by Allegri and given an appropriate liturgical setting. If you click on the individual “movements” you’re not only given the text in Latin with English translation but you can also read the section in Carwood’s note relevant to that piece (and Hyperion’s very classy metadata and superb editorial make it a must-visit site if a fact ever needs double-checking!) I always chuckle, too, at the “Please, someone, buy me…” feature, a slightly poignant little area where discs – good old-fashioned CDs, so not really the purview of this column – that have languished completely undisturbed are offered at bin-end prices (hyperion-records.co.uk).

The Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall continues to be a regular destination: it’s quite a treat to watch and listen to one of the world’s greatest orchestras in superb vision and sound live from the Philharmonie. But watching live is not always practical and the Archive section of the site is full of riches. I watched part of the Mahler Third conducted by Sir Simon Rattle live and a few days later (there’s usually a short delay as the concert is edited) watched the entire concert, complete with the two songs – one by Wolf, one by Brahms – that preceded it (giving the two excellent soloists something else to do!). A David Zinman-conducted concert ends with a fine Nielsen Fifth. Along the way comes the premiere of Anders Hillborg’s Cold Heat and an impressive performance of Shostakovich’s Second Cello Concerto with Yo-Yo Ma. There’s also a feast of Russian music under Gergiev and Järvi Sr (including a rare chance to hear Taneyev’s Fourth Symphony in concert). And it’s also good to see some of the younger generation working with this great ensemble: there are concerts under Yannick Nézet-Séguin (and if I were a betting man he’d be the one I’d put money on as the Major Conductor of tomorrow), Andris Nelsons 
(not far behind) and Tomás Netopil. If you want to sample the Digital Concert Hall, you can either buy a day ticket for €9.90 or, probably better value and certainly less frenetic, a 30-day pass for €29. All information at digitalconcerthall.com.

Talking of great orchestras, the New York Philharmonic has just put its vast archive online (archives.nyphil.org) and it makes fascinating viewing. Funded by the Leon Levy Foundation, the NYPO Archive contains a wealth of documentation about the administrative and artistic sides and even about the orchestra’s attitude to civil rights, but for me the most fascinating documents are the marked-up scores. Bernstein’s conducting score for Mahler’s Ninth contains numerous revealing comments. On the page facing the start of the score, Bernstein has summed up the symphony’s four movements as “Death of tenderness + tonality”, “Death of simplicity (innocence)”, “Death of society” and “Letting go (death of resistance, clinging to life)”.

The essential download playlist No 40 - Margaret Price RIP

Elgar The Kingdom Boult (EMI) Am, iT

Mahler. Schubert. R Strauss Lieder Parsons (Wigmore Hall Live)  A, Am, CO, CS, iT

Mozart Così fan tutte (Fiordiligi) Klemperer (EMI)  iT, A, Am

Mozart Don Giovanni (Donna Anna) Solti (Decca)  iT, A, Am

Mozart Concert and opera arias Lockhart (RCA)  iT, A

Mozart Requiem Schreier (Philips)  iT, A, Am

Schubert Lieder Johnson (Hyperion) H, iT

Schumann Kerner Lieder. Liederkreis, Op 39 Johnson (Hyperion)  H, iT

Verdi Otello (Desdemona) Solti (Decca)  A, Am, DG, iT

Wagner Tristan und Isolde (Isolde) C Kleiber (DG)  A, Am, DG, iT           

A = Ariama Am = Amazon CO = Classics Online CS = Classical Shop DG = DG Webshop H = Hyperion iT = iTunes

James Jolly