There are a large number of people creating some excellent content in the classical music world, but exposure can be a problem. It is difficult to find something you would enjoy if you don’t even know of its existence in the first place.

In this post, I hope to present a collection of resources that lets people more easily explore what’s out there. I will edit in more as they occur to me, and if anyone has any suggestions I would be happy to take a look at them and possibly edit them into the main post as well.

Without further introduction, here they are:

Ensembles

• Voices of Music – This channel features a vast collection, and regular uploads, of historically-informed performances on period instruments. They have incredible sound engineers, and upload in 4k quality. I love their performance of the second movement of Bach’s Double Violin Concerto in D Minor [BWV 1043]
• Netherlands Bach Society – This channel also uploads historically-informed performances on period instruments, however their specific goal is to upload the complete works of J.S. Bach. They have great video and audio quality. Notably, almost every performance video is uploaded along with an interview-style video by the performers; these videos often offer some very poignant insights on the pieces, as well as the performances. Their performance of Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2 [BWV 1067] is great. This one actually has two interviews along with it: 1 and 2.
• Hochrhein Musikfestival – This channel has a smaller catalogue than the last two, but what they do have is of superb quality. They have performance from Vivaldi to Prokofiev. I really enjoy their performance of Mozart’s Piano Quartet No.1 [K.478]

Soloists

• Gert van Hoef – This man is an amazing organist from The Netherlands. He has hundreds of videos in his catalogue, and uploads quite regularly. His performance of the Dutch Hymn “Heer U Bent Mijn Leven” is absolutely incredible. He is a very skilled improviser, and the hymn theme itself is beautiful. (Any organists out there watching will realize how stunning his foot work is in many of his videos.)
• Paul Barton – This is an English (former) concert pianist living in Thailand. He uploads regularly, and has a huge variety of of pieces that he has performed: Scarlatti, to Grieg, to Chopin, to Bach, to Debussy, etc. etc. His signature style is a video split in half: the top half showing the sheet music, and the bottom half showing an overhead view of his hands; this makes him a good source for people learning and wanting to see fingering and hand movement in action. He is also quite involved in elephant rehabilitation, and has many videos in which he is playing piano for elephants and interacting with them. He does a great job with Liszt’s Un Sospiro.
• Chiara Massini – This woman is an Italian harpsichordist. She doesn’t upload regularly, and her catalogue is quite modest in size, but the quality of her videos demands that I list her here. She plays on very well-made instruments, with very good sensibilities, and good recording quality. Here is is my favorite performance of Handel’s F Major Suite [HWV 427].
• teafruitbat – This man records videos playing a variety of different historical instruments: clavichords, spinets, harpsichords, virginals, etc. He doesn’t upload regularly, but his catalogue has several hundred videos. He uploaded the complete sonatas of Sebastián de Albero on his channel; I enjoy No.11 in D Minor.
• Kazutaka Tsutsui – This man is a Japanese instrument seller (builder too, perhaps), and uploads a wide variety of pieces (baroque, all the way to modern songs) on a wide variety of instruments (often to novel effect: a modern Japanese song from the 80s played on a clavichord, for instance). This performance of Ernest A. Dicks’ “Andantino on a reed organ is beautiful.
• Authentic Sound – This man, Wim Winters, has managed to stir quite a bit of controversy in the classical community on account of his championing of the Whole Beat Metronome Theory. Besides the mentioning of its existence, I won’t touch on it here. However, whether you disagree with his claims, or whether you think he’s ushering in a musical revolution, it cannot be denied that he offers the absolute highest quality clavichord recordings on the internet (or anywhere). As his channel suggests, most of his uploads are from “Bach to Beethoven”. The later the composer/piece, the more apparent his incongruity with modern performance practice is, but his recordings of earlier works are usually quite in-line with how most performers would play them. His recording of Handel’s Suite in D Minor [HWV 437] is very nice. This recording of Mozart’s Sonata No.6 [K.284] is an example of his departure from the common way of playing.
• John Moraitis – This man has several hundred videos on his channel that are nearly all filled with very in-depth analysis. Most of his performances are on either harpsichord or spinet, and are prefaced by a lengthy discussion. This upload of his of the C Major Prelude from Bach’s WTC1 [BWV 846] is a good example of the kind of content he delivers. Time-stamps are in the comments
• danbluedeer – This man uploads a wide variety of pieces on guitars and lutes. At least half of his uploads are of modern songs, but he has some great recordings of classical pieces as well. His recordings of one of John Dowland’s Lacrimae on classical guitar is very nice.
• Aubrey Tucker – This man creates very well-crafted organ transcription for a variety of music, and posts high quality performances of his transcription along with scrolling sheet music. I love his arrangement of Purcell’s “When I am Laid in Earth”.

Other Uploaders

• Miguel Fontes Meira – This channel is currently in the middle of a massive project: the upload of all 556 Scarlatti keyboard sonatas as performed by Scott Ross, with animated sheet music. It is already a wonderful resource for keyboard players, and I very much anticipate the completion of the project.
• gerubach – This ambitious channel is seemingly run by one man, with the lofty goal of uploading every J.S. Bach composition along with an animated, scrolling score. This is an upload by him of one of my favorite ever organ fantasias BWV 572. I encourage the use of studio headphones or very good speakers for this.
• Ashish Xiangyi Kumar – This channel features stunning recordings, sheet music in the video, and insightful comments in the description (often along with a very detailed analysis). The channel is still active, and has several hundred videos in its catalogue (notably, the complete sonatas of Beethoven, complete with multiple performances of each one, notes on the performances, notes on the piece, and analyses). His upload of Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata is a good example of what to expect from his channel.
• S.P.’s Score Videos – This channel uploads high quality sheet music videos of the more obscure composers in the canon. I found listening to Jacques DuPhly’s harpsichord works with scrolling sheet music very enjoyable. Here is a link to the first book.
• olla-vogala – This man doesn’t seem to upload anymore, but his channel has a catalogue of close to 500 videos. His videos all feature sheet music in the video, as well as insightful descriptions. This is his upload of Borodin’s String Quartet No.2. As mentioned before: he has good info in the description.
• Smalin – This channel features very creative animated graphical scores of classical pieces. From basic line separation, as in this animation of Bach’s “Little” Fugue in G Minor, to more creative endeavors, like this animation of Beethoven’s String Quartet No.16.
• Sergio Cánovas – From the channel description: “The main purpose of this channel is to share symphonic cycles. From almost unknown composers to the most famous ones. Other musical genres aren’t discarded, but will be less frequent.” All these videos have very informative descriptions. Here is his upload of C.P.E. Bach’s Symphony in E Minor [Wq. 178].
• scrymgeour34 – This channel is no longer active, but it has several hundred videos. The uploads are recordings “from [his] personal collection”, many I haven’t been able to find elsewhere online. His videos sometimes have a brief description, but almost always have time-stamps. Here is his upload of Haydn’s Symphony No.83.
• Bartje Bartmans – This channel is still active, and features nearly 1,000 videos. Almost all of his videos have sheet music, as well as a moderate-length description. Here is his upload of Mozart’s Violin Sonata No.21 in E Minor

Podcasts

• Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast – This podcast is run by the conductor Joshua Weilerstein. From the podcast’s own description: “Interviews with great artists, in depth looks at pieces in the repertoire, and both basic and deep dives into every era of music.”

As I mentioned, I will continue to update this post as I become aware of new channels or resources, so if you have any suggestions be sure to leave them below.

For now,

Happy listening~