About Archive Classics
Archive Classics is produced by Classic Arts Productions, one of the UK’s leading radio production companies specialising in classical music. The podcasts are presented by acclaimed writer and broadcaster Stephen Johnson.

Working with our partner labels we launched Archive Classics in April 2009 to enable us to showcase fine historical recordings of classical music. Many recordings will feature well known artists from the past such as Thomas Beecham, Artur Schnabel, Yehudi Menuhin and Georg Solti. Others will feature lesser known names who may have been forgotton today, but deserve to be remembered for their artistic excellence.

The weekly podcasts are available to stream from this website, or you can subscribe via RSS to ensure each new podcast is automatically downloaded to your computer.

If you are already wondering what all this jargon means, then please see our Help page for further information.

What we offer
Each week’s podcast features a sequence of recordings authoritatively presented by Stephen Johnson. The sequence is centered around a Feature Recording, usually a major work such as a symphony or a concerto. This Feature Recording is also available to subscribers only to download as a separate audio file.

The podcast is available in two versions:

• Full version
  This podcast is 90 minutes in duration and features a sequence of recordings centered around a complete performance of our Feature Recording. The podcast is produced at a premium bit rate of 192 k/bits, and the Feature Recording is available to download separately as a high quality 320 k/bit MP3 file. In addition, there will usually be one or two other recordings which appear only in the full version.
  
  To access the full version, you need to subscribe to the service, which can be done by clicking here. Subscribers are able to then download each week’s podcast to their computers, or alternatively can stream the high quality file direct from our website. They can also download the Feature Recording as a separate audio file.
  
  In addition, subscribers will have full streaming access to the whole archive of past podcasts, and will also be able to download the past four Feature Recordings, and the past four podcasts. They will also have full access to our weekly podcast blog.
  
  
• Free version
  This weekly podcast is 60 minutes in duration and features a sequence of recordings centered around an excerpt – usually one movement only – from our Feature Recording.
  
  The podcast is produced at an acceptable listening quality audio of 65 k/bits, but the Feature Recording is not available to download separately. The archive of past podcasts will be available to listen to at the reduced bit rate.
  
  

The recordings
Our partner labels all use the very best re-mastering technology available to present the recordings in the best possible light, and many of the results are extraordinary. Of course we are dealing with recordings which are usually at least 50 years old, so on occasion the sound quality is less than perfect. However, our aim at Archive Classics is to focus on the artistry first and foremost, with the actual recorded sound taking second place. For those of you who might find the odd "snap, crackle and pop" off-putting, we have put together a brief listening guide which can be found on our help pages.

Stephen Johnson
Stephen Johnson is one of the UK’s most engaging and authoritative voices on classical music.  Born in Lancashire in 1955, he studied at the Northern School of Music, Manchester, and under Alexander Goehr at Leeds University. He then went on to postgraduate studies at Manchester University, before embarking on a career as a music journalist.

He was formerly Chief Music Critic for The Scotsman, and now writes regularly for The Independent, The Guardian, and the BBC Music Magazine.

He has broadcast frequently for BBC Radio 3, 4 and World Service, where his major projects have included series of centennial programmes on the music of Bruckner and Elgar. He is now a regular presenter for Radio 3's Discovering Music.

He is the author of Bruckner Remembered (Faber 1998) and books on Mahler and Wagner (Naxos 2006 & 2007). He also contributed to The Cambridge Companion to Conducting (Cambridge University Press 2004).

In 2003 Stephen was voted Amazon.com 'Classical Music Writer of the Year'. He is also a composer, and has been taking lessons with the Danish composer Per Nørgård.  He and his wife Kate live in Herefordshire, deep in Elgar country, where he likes to walk and cycle.