As a major component of the celebration of the 75^th Anniversary of Tanglewood, the BSO will begin a program of streaming and then selling recordings of historic performances from its extensive archives. Beginning on June 20^th and for each of the 75 days thereafter, a new performance will be available for 24 hours of free listening on the BSO’s website here. After the first day, one may download said performance to one’s own computer for a fee. The BSO apparently hopes to monetize its audio archives through this exclusive offering, a tantalizing project that many in the broadcast community are watching carefully.

Great care on the part of a select committee went into choosing the most worthy examples from the BSO’s dauntingly large 75-year recorded history. Sound quality may vary, but performances will all be of the highest level. The BSO website will also offer related photos and program notes, written by the distinguished former Boston Globe critic Richard Dyer, to place each work in a meaningful context.

BSO Artistic Administrator Tony Fogg describes the section process in his very interesting essay here.

The BSO further notes, “The repertoire for the 75 streams has been chosen from a vast array of programs and artists and will feature many of the greatest conductors, composers, and performers of the 20^th and 21^st centuries, as well as Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, many of whom went on to have major careers and perform in the world’s most prestigious concert halls and opera houses.  The Boston Symphony Orchestra is grateful to the dozens of conductors, instrumentalists, and singers, who have generously allowed their performances to be included in this project.”

The complete list is here.

Beginning with opening night on July 6^th, this summer’s Tanglewood concerts may be heard live on Classical New England’s network of radio stations. These broadcasts, produced by 99.5 Classical New England (CNE), will then be disseminated as webcasts for the 365 subsequent days. The BSO will similarly stream those concerts on its own BSO Media Center for the same duration. There has further been talk about “high-bit-rate streaming” for BSO broadcasts from the CNE site. Whether the BSO will match this offering is as yet unknown. But it must be acknowledged that classical listeners are to be rewarded with an amazing array of content this summer.