Apple Music Launches New Classical Music Section Curated by Deutsche Grammophon, Including Full-Length Operas

[MacRumors]

Apple Music this week began rolling out a new section in Browse curated by Deutsche Grammophon, known as one of the biggest classical musical labels in the world. In this section, classical music fans will find featured playlists of specific composers, highlighted radio stations, and all-new visual albums stocked with the "full-length performance" of select operas (via Engadget).

Specifically, one of the three visual albums is a staging of composer Charles-François Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, which was held at the 2008 Salzburg Music and Drama Festival. The visual album includes 32 tracks, which can be played all at once and runs for 2 hours and 33 minutes.

The other operatic visual albums were also staged during the Salzburg Festival, including a Mozart Gala from 2006 and Giacomo Puccini's La bohème opera from 2012, staged at the Grosses Festspielhaus opera house. Of course, Apple Music has launched non-opera visual albums in the past, including Frank Ocean's Endless, but as Engadget notes this is the first time the service has debuted a full-length opera as a visual album.

From the Apple Music editors:

Deutsche Grammophon has been home to the world's greatest musicians ever since gramophone inventor Emile Berliner founded the label in 1898. For decades, legendary conductor Herbert von Karajan epitomized the style and elegance of The Yellow Label - so called for its striking cartouche emblem.

Claudio Abbado and Leonard Bernstein joined him, and now Andris Nelsons and Yannick Nézet-Séguin continue DG's tradition of working with the finest conductors. Among pianists, Daniil Trifonov follows where Wilhelm Kempff and Maurizio Pollini led, while the current roster also stars violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and soprano Anna Netrebko. Enjoy the best of these artists and more with playlists, albums, and videos.

According to Deutsche Grammophon, its new Apple Music section will be "regularly updated," so fans of classical music can expect to see more of the label's recordings and potentially more visual albums in the future.

Apple Music has seen a few slight updates over the summer, beginning with a new "Coming Soon" section for all users that highlights albums launching in the near future. Earlier this week, the service also began rolling out a "Friends Mix" weekly playlist, which curates a list of 25 songs that your friends have been listening to recently.

Article Link: Apple Music Launches New Classical Music Section Curated by Deutsche Grammophon, Including Full-Length Operas

 

[Cougarcat]

Great. Now how about making the UI usable for classical music? Make long track names double lined, instead of the ..., which makes all tracks look the same.

 

[AllergyDoc]

What a great addition for us opera fans.

 

[Clix Pix]

OOOOOooooh!!!! Now THIS might be a reason for me to finally sign up with Apple Music!!

 

[saudade]

Sorry my ignorance but what is exactly the opera? I only know oprah. It’s something related with old music?

 

[antiprotest]

Sorry my ignorance but what is exactly the opera? I only know oprah. It’s something related with old music?

Look it up. It's a web browser.

 

[Brenster]

Excellent news! Had the DG playlist in whilst at work today and it’s one gem after another.

SO glad classical is getting some love on AM. Well played DG and Apple, well played.

 

[Warren_21]

"Let's keep releasing features that are not really dealbreakers but ignore the UI, playlists which need to be overhauled" - Apple probably

 

[alfonsog]

Finally some love for classical but the track names are still fail as stated above. I really only listen to classical and musicals.

 

[mikethemartian]

Shouldn’t a curator be independent of a specific label?

 

[Marco Klobas]

Great. Now how about making the UI usable for classical music? Make long track names double lined, instead of the ..., which makes all tracks look the same.

This + what's listed here: https://medium.com/@z_narf/why-apple-music-fails-with-classical-music-cdce5582a1a0

 

[jonnysods]

That's pretty cool. Been really getting into classical music lately.

Also a great band Future of Forestry: Union. Go check it out.

 

[S G]

Agree with the second line, not only in Apple Music but every other music streaming app. Beside the interpreter(s), the composer should always appear in the individual track name.

 

[nt5672]

Can't imagine listening to good Classical music through Apple's DACs and earphones. But to each their own.

 

[Mike MA]

After complaining about the obvious and heavy hiphop focus on Apple Music and especially Beats 1, I have to admit this caught my by surprise.

 

[timsutcliffe]

This is good.

Although track names are an issue, as a few have already mentioned.

 

[Superhai]

Agree with the second line, not only in Apple Music but every other music streaming app. Beside the interpreter(s), the composer should always appear in the individual track name.

iTunes offer a metadata option to show composer on each track. There is also the work/movement metadata which helps to condense the tracknames. But still there are large rooms available to put a lot more improvements. It would also help that metadata acted the same on iTunes as on iOS or tvOS.

 

[4jasontv]

Can you not leave App Store comments or rate Apple apps such as Music? I’ve never noticed that before.

 

[skitidetdu]

Sorry my ignorance but what is exactly the opera? I only know oprah. It’s something related with old music?

The opera? It is not "an opera" it is a genre...and it doesn't have to be "old" (whatever that means). There are "new" operas written all over the planet. Just widen your horizon a bit more.

 

[69Mustang]

This is a good thing. It also gives me a better understanding of Cook's melodramatic "We worry about the humanity being drained from music." He was just drip marketing subliminal seeds about the launch of this section. Cheeky bastard. Almost makes me want to retract my rant in that thread.

 

[CarlJ]

Sorry my ignorance but what is exactly the opera? I only know oprah. It’s something related with old music?

A pity. When you get older and wiser, you will perhaps learn that we have a whole world of music going back many hundreds of years, even dating back to that mysterious time before you were born, and with music, as with wine and some other spirits, newer does not necessarily mean better.
[doublepost=1533930252][/doublepost]

Can you not leave App Store comments or rate Apple apps such as Music? I’ve never noticed that before.

Apps that are built in to iOS do not have separate entries in the App Store. Where would you leave such comments/ratings?

 

[Brenster]

Can't imagine listening to good Classical music through Apple's DACs and earphones. But to each their own.

Apple TV via HDMI to a decent AVR + speakers is good enough for home listening. Not to mention that a decent pair of headphones are more than good enough for mobile listening, easily an improvement over the pack in earbuds with iPhone. And CarPlay in the car. Auditioned a HomePod in an Apple Store with a staff member playing Stravinkey's Rite of Spring through it. Serious HiFi? No. Good enough for the kitchen hands free whilst cooking? Easily.

Apple & DG putting in some effort with classical on Apple Music is better than them not doing. Glass half full here. If Apple's and DG's efforts here held expose more people to classical, more power to them.

The opera? It is not "an opera" it is a genre...and it doesn't have to be "old" (whatever that means). There are "new" operas written all over the planet. Just widen your horizon a bit more.

Well said.

Worked my way through John Adam's opera Doctor Atomic last weekend. Written in 2005, sung in English. subject matter: the latter days of the Manhattan Project leading up to the Trinity test. Not what most people envisage when they hear the word 'opera'. But opera none the less. Think of the recording as a concept album if it helps.

As @skitidetdu says, new operas are written all the time. The most well know may well have been written by people long dead but it's far from a dead form of music.

 

[CarlJ]

Make long track names double lined, instead of the ..., which makes all tracks look the same.

Ugh! This has been SO ANNOYING at times - being able to read the catalog number and the start of the name of the entire work, with no clue as to what movement each track is... it's laughably bad - hard to believe they would have released it this way if they had had any classical music used in testing. I recall playing Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker for my niece (at her request) and she wanted to hear particular dances, and... there was simply no way to tell which was which.

 

[page3]

Unfortunately I’ve already left Apple Music for Spotify, which has far better classical music support.

My home system is a Sonos Connect, Anthem AVR and KEF LS50s. It’s amazing just how good streamed MP3 can sound. Last weekend I was listening at a friends via a Unison Research tube amp, AppleTV (version 2 which has digital out), an external DAC and Martin Logan electrostatic speakers and that sounded a whole lot better!

 

[rikscha]

Wow that’s big. Was hoping for this one