Apple Explains Why It Launched an iPhone App Dedicated to Classical Music

Hopefully Apple's Classical Music app will pique the interest of growing youth and help them appreciate the beauty of classical music, moving them closer to it, and further away from the vanity of tiktoks and instagrams.

Needs an iPad app, too. It was kind of gross opening it on my iPad Pro without realizing that it was just the iPhone app.

The app was automatically loaded to my iPhone at 10 p.m. EDT on Monday. First impression is that it seems a lot like a skin on a subset of Apple Music.

First search test did not inspire confidence.
- Typed “Beethoven symphony 2” (sans quotes) in the search box and the works (as opposed to albums) listed were the composer’s symphonies nos. 5, 9, 6, 7 and 3 along with, I assume, the number of recordings or tracks of each.
- Under that is a See All Works link. Selecting it takes you to a page that lists the symphonies as above followed by 8, 2 (finally!), 1, 4 and 10 (?!).
- Select 2 and you’re presented with a preliminary list of recordings, including an unexplained/unjustified Editor’s Choice (Berlin Phil under Rattle, no thanks), followed by a list of five Popular Recordings and a See All link.
- Select that and you finally get to the list of 500-odd albums that can be sorted by Popularity (the default), Name, Release Date or Duration. Lots of big name European and American orchestras under big name conductors, though you’ll have scroll through several screens before you come across a period instrument performance (Gardiner’s, with Savall's excellent performance coming a few more screens below that).

This is lame from start to finish and not that much better than Apple Music.

I used to subscribe to Idagio. Searching it for Beethoven symphony 2 presented you with a results page in two parts: a list of all the recordings and another list of the ensembles, the conductors and, for things like concertos and chamber music, the individual musicians. You want to hear Toscanini’s recording with the NBC Symphony Orchestra? You select NBC or Toscanini and bingo.

Searching Apple Classical for Turandot turns up scads of albums and tracks (all together in a single list…) but not the just released Warner recording with Radvanovsky and Kaufmann. To get that, I had to type Turandot Pappano (the conductor). Neither it nor the recently released William Christie-conducted Platée from Vienna had liner notes, let alone libretti. For new recordings, Idagio often had both in PDF format.

First impressions, I admit, but so far a disappointment. Plus, though there's lots of stuff in lossless and hi-res, I've no way to play it back in anything but mid-res (Sonos, which does hi-res with Qobuz and Amazon, and AirPod Pros).

Excellent- I'm sure it going to work like magic! 🎻. A total game-changer for our parents and grandparents. For some, great grandparents. 👴🏻👵🏻🎶🎼

A total game-changer for our parents and grandparents. For some, great grandparents. 👴🏻👵🏻🎶🎼

My parents didn't listen to classical music... 😅 ...but somehow I have, since I was a boy.

It’s only Monday! Ugh 😩

Is anyone planning on jamming to Classical Music App + Drinking some Red Wine this upcoming weekend? 🎶 🍷