Doublestop Magazine

The Best Stringed-Instrument Podcasts

by Karl Nelson

The best (and cheapest) way to learn about new music and new musicians is to explore the many strings-focused podcasts. You can hear tunes from many genres, including classical, bluegrass, folk, gospel, jazz, hip-hop and anything in-between. Read on to learn more about the best violin, viola, and cello podcasts.

The podcast explained.

A podcast is simply an audio program that automatically delivers new episodes to you when they’re released. You can either listen to the episode on your computer, or download them to your portable music player. Although the term “podcast” comes from the iPod, you don’t need an iPod to listen. But, since Apple’s iTunes software is so widely available and it has podcasting features built it, it is the easiest way to start listening to podcasts. (You can learn more about the technical details on Wikipedia.)

Looking for the best.

There are plenty of podcasts out there, but I have some specific criteria in mind:

Less talk, more rock. I’m looking for music here, not interviews or commentary. Sure, a well-done short intro can be a real asset in a podcast, but my goal here is to hear the music, not talk. MPR’s New Classical Tracks is an example of what I’m *not* looking for. Host Julie Amacher may do a an excellent job with the color commentary, but she’s only playing snippets of music interspersed with her comments.

Regularly updated. A bit of searching will turn up dozens of orphaned podcasts, with the last episode added sometime last year. Exact regularity isn’t required, but podcasts shouldn’t jerk listeners around with irregular schedules. Some podcasts go months without updates, leaving you to wonder if they’re still on the air. And others churn out more episodes than you can reasonably listen to. The best shows stick to a weekly or bi-weekly schedule.

Not too hot, not too cold…just right. You’ll probably find a length that works for you. For me, a thirty to forty minute podcast fits nicely with my commute. You might find that shows are too long or too short for whatever activity–exercising, driving, and so forth–you’re doing while listening. Short episodes can make you fumble for the controls frequently, while you may never make it through the longer ones.

Quality recordings and quality musicians. Recording and web tools are easy enough for anyone to use, and I’d never want to discourage anyone from giving it a try, but I focused on finding well-recorded podcasts featuring great players.

Although I’m primarily interested in podcasts that feature violins and other stringed instruments, I don’t mind if other instruments sneak in. Because these are just MP3s, you can easily skip or delete anything you’d rather not hear.

Favorite podcasts

WGBH Classical Performance

Radio station WGBH’s recordings of in-studio performances has been a mainstay on my playlist for a while now. Host Alan McLellan provides a brief introduction, then steps aside for the remainder of the podcast, each of which ranges from about fifteen to forty-five minutes. Because these performances are recorded in a studio, they tend to feature smaller groups or soloists. String quartets, cellists, and solo violists make frequent appearances on the show, along with pianists. As you’d expect from a radio station, the production values are very high. The podcast has over a year of performances, providing you with enough listening material to keep you happy for a while.

The Concert from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Also originating from Boston, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s podcast features recordings of concerts held at the museum. And like WGBH, the Gardner podcast tends to favor smaller, more intimate groups of musicians. The introductions to each episode tend to be longer and more detailed than the WGBH versions, lasting a couple of minutes. Episodes range from thirty to forty-five minutes.

The Gardner Museum maintains a wonderful website to support the podcast. You can read more about each concert, as well as see relevant art work from the museum’s collection. And, you can download individual tracks (free, licensed under the Creative Commons) to add to your collection.

The idea of a music podcast originating from a museum known for an art collection that can never be moved is sufficiently interesting to warrant a recent feature in Fast Company magazine. The article explains why the museum produces a podcast, and gives us a nice behind-the-scenes look.

Bowed Radio

Producer and frequent host Mark Allender mixes together an eclectic mix of string tracks. While the other podcasts reviewed here trend classical, Bowed Radio covers nearly every other genre that could be possibly played on a stringed (or, as they would say, bowed) instrument. So, if your playlist has been stuck in the same genre, stretch yourself with Bowed Radio.

Each weekly episode runs about thirty to forty-five minutes, and Allender has been producing the show since 2005. Tracks tend to be from recordings submitted by the artists, introduced by the host. The introductions bring a bit more chatter than I would ordinarily like to the podcast, but they are well-done and the effect isn’t that different than most traditional radio stations.

Magnatune Podcasts

Magnatune, a record company that describes itself as “not evil”, has a number of very high-quality podcasts that are of interest to string musicians, but their irregular publication schedule gives me pause. You can find podcasts — all featuring tracks for sale at the company’s website — on a variety of classical genres, specific composers (Bach), and even instruments like the cello and Viola da Gamba.

Each episode runs about an hour, and simply features a number of tracks run together. Unlike many of the other podcasts profiled here, Magnatune’s podcasts don’t have any sort of “host” providing commentary. When I last looked, each genre only had a handful of episodes, some coming only a week apart, with the occasional months-long gap between episodes.

I’ll confess that I like the concept of a Magnatune as a record company, and providing a podcast is a brilliant marketing move. I’d suggest that they consider consolidating some genres and shortening the episodes to help put the podcast on a regular publication schedule. For now, Magnatune remains one to watch, even if it hasn’t yet earned a permanent place on my iPod.

Not quite there…

As I hunted out podcasts that met my criteria, I found a couple of interesting-looking shows that didn’t quite make it on to my “recommended” list. But, you may find something here that works for you:

The Times Classical Podcast
The Times (London) features a nice-looking classical podcast, amongst a variety of other material. It is unfortunately marred by an infrequent schedule, and perhaps more talk than I prefer.

NACOcast
Christopher Millard, principal bassoon of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, hosts a show that looks to be primarily interview-focused. Music fans could probably learn a great deal from these well-done shows, but it just wasn’t what I was looking for.

Did I miss a favorite?

Let us know if you have a favorite podcast that didn’t make it on the list. Leave a comment below with your suggestions.