Classical Archives Celebrates Launch With Major Artist Exclusive and Free 1-Click Concerts

Largest Online Classical Music Site Offers Exclusive Access to Maria Joˆ£o Pires'

New Deutsche Grammophon CD And Free Musical History Tours Covering Four Periods

The Classical Archives (www.classicalarchives.com), which is bringing online classical music shopping, listening and enjoyment into the 21st century, is celebrating its launch with an exclusive album launch from acclaimed pianist Maria Joˆ£o Pires and a series of free 1-click musical history concerts for all visitors. The site is the most complete classical music resource on the Internet with over 620,000 recorded tracks (building to over 1 million!) representing 6,600 composers, 21,000 artists and 100+ record labels representing a unique blend of the majors and independent labels.

Until June 2, the classical archives is the only place fans can purchase the newest album by Maria Joˆ£o Pires. Widely recognized as one of the most brilliant pianists of the last forty years, Pires is celebrating her 20th anniversary as a Deutsche Grammophon exclusive recording artist with an all-new, 2-CD release devoted entirely to the works of Chopin. This long-awaited recital includes the formidable Third Sonata, the cello sonata with cellist Pavel Gomziakov and a variety of smaller works, all composed during the last years of Chopin's life. This new recording, Pires's first in over four years, is available exclusively for download and streaming from Classical Archives.

Pierre R. Schwob, CEO and Founder, notes, "We are honored to be able to bring this stunning new Deutsche Grammophon album from Maria Joˆ£o Pires exclusively to our users. This is the caliber of artist exclusive that visitors to and members of The Classical Archives can expect to enjoy in the months and years ahead. We are working with all of the major labels and many exclusive independents to ensure that we are the ultimate destination for classical music online."

Roll Up For The Musical History Tour

As part of the launch, the site is inviting all visitors to enjoy a free special four-part series featuring essential pieces of Classical Music, from the early 17th to the present. Each "1-Click Concert’Ñ¢" is about two hours long, and is devoted to a major period of music history: Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern. The first three concerts are generously sponsored by major classical labels: Baroque (UMG), Classical (EMI), and Romantic (SonyBMG), while the Modern concert features recordings from our independent roster of talented artists. A Modern concert featuring recordings from the Naxos label is forthcoming.

These great works are performed by an assembly of preeminent artists from the major labels: Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, EMI, Angel, Sony, RCA, as well as our outstanding roster of independent artists. We salute the labels for this generous offering to the Classical Archives community.

Each program is introduced by some brief commentary to acquaint the newcomer to classical music with some guidelines and important considerations, as they enjoy these musical tours.

Schwob notes that the free concerts are indicative of the site's dedication to expanding the understanding of musical history and learning. "The Classical Archives site offers a wealth of learning for newcomers and aficionados alike. We provide detailed musicological information for each work: its proper movements and subdivisions, genre, principal instruments, year of composition, and key. Users can then easily compare various recordings of a given work, each identified in a proper and consistent manner ’Äì something not possible with any other site. "

The just launched site offers a breakthrough in site navigation that will be welcomed by anyone who has ever shopped for music online. The proprietary navigation and search engine capability that lets visitors search and cross-reference by any relevant criteria: composer, work title, artist, albums, historical period, instrument, genre, and many others that make finding and comparing the best classical recordings easier than it has ever been.

In addition to albums from major labels such as DG/Decca, Angel/EMI/Virgin, Sony/Columbia, and 100+ more, the site offers a large collection of free streaming tracks from its own roster of world-class talents. The company's ultimate goal is to offer the complete catalogs of all classical music record labels, as well as independent classical artists in DRM-free format, and to identify the recordings in a proper, consistent, and easily searchable form. Classical Archives will always allow users to keep their downloads for life: they are not tied to any conditions such as staying in a subscription program.

The new Classical Archives offers unique membership opportunities that allow users to take advantage of its vast resources easily and affordably. Fees are $9.95/month or $99.50/year. Benefits include the ability to listen to music from the whole site (entire tracks or works); a 10% discount on all downloads (which are yours to keep for life!); the first two weeks as a free trial of the service; the ability to access and download MIDI files free of charge.

Free registered members also enjoy great benefits: the ability to listen to any music clips (30-60 seconds); the ability to purchase downloads; and the ability to access and download MIDI files.

For more information, please visit: www.classicalarchives.com.