Classical music on the Internet has come of age. Just enter "classical music" on any search engine and it will yield myriad results. Many sites are products of individuals sharing their love of a favorite composer or performer, or professionals promoting their own careers. Amid them all, it seems there are but a handful of truly decent all-purpose classical Web sites. Perhaps that's because they are subject to the same pitfalls faced by classical record companies: Shrinking audiences and a shaky economy have made for a survival-of-the-fittest climate in what was already a fragile industry.

While some classical-music Web sites have become the victims of hard times, others seem to be staying afloat and even growing.

Case in point: Two well-known sites—both classical music pioneers on the Internet—have faced grave difficulties: N2K's Classical Insites, once a high-profile Web destination and one of the first to offer serious, well-written content about classical music (in addition to selling CDs), was shut down in 1999 after N2K merged with CDnow. The other, the popular event search engine Culturefinder.com, ran into financial trouble and almost folded, but instead tried a different (and somewhat daring) tactic—going nonprofit. The future of some sites might be shaky, but fortunately, others seem to be staying afloat. As concertgoers become more comfortable with buying tickets on the Web, sites run by major orchestras, opera companies, and other performing arts organizations are growing. For example, Lincoln Center Inc. reports that about 10 percent of its 2001-02 season ticket sales came from its Web site (lincolncenter.org), about twice the amount of the previous season; the Metropolitan Opera's site (metopera.org/ home.html) accounted for about 5 percent of its sales last season, up from 4 percent in 2000-01; the numbers for the New York Philharmonic's site (newyorkphilharmonic.org) were 11 percent in 2001-02 versus 7 percent in 2000-01.

As a frequent Web surfer, I find three sites—andante.com, MusicalAmerica.com, and Fanfaire.com—to be particularly informative, entertaining, and fairly simple to navigate.

ANDANTE.COM

Launched in April 2001, andante.com is one of the most complete sites dedicated to classical music. Its mission statement reads: "Andante is a new type of classical music venture. Its aim is to document and preserve the world's recorded classical musical heritage and to become the definitive online resource for information about classical music and opera." Tall order!

From the home page, which uses a Paul Klee fresco as its background, the user can access five main sections, some of which are free, some of which require membership ($9.99 a month or $99 a year). The magazine area assembles news, reviews, interviews, in-depth essays, opinions, and perspectives, with articles on topics like the influence of Asian music on the Western world. News covering the entire classical music spectrum is updated throughout the day. Moreover, visitors can research the archives (don't miss this area—it's way at the bottom of the home page), where you'll find features like a tribute to Maurizio Pollini on his 60th birthday) and retrieve all of andante's original reviews, essays, and other articles. In addition to radio andante, the site's free, 24-hour station that streams a combination of historical and contemporary recordings, the area called musicroom also provides members access to a section featuring audio/video performances from great orchestras. With RealPlayer and a good set of speakers, the user can enjoy Brahms's Second Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic under Furtwängler (1945), Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2 with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Sawallisch (2002), and many more exciting performances. The calendar enables subscribers to search for upcoming events (concert, opera, festival) by date, location (U.S. and international), performer, or piece.

Andante's reference section provides useful online access to such resources as The Concise Grove Dictionary (popular among students for last-minute papers!) and The New Kobbé's Opera Book. The profiles area contains thorough biographies of such personalities as Pierre Boulez and Bruno Walter, in addition to previews of future articles and andante's partnerships. Last but not least, besides the directories of performing artists and music Web sites (which offer more than 12,000 links), andante has its own record label and sells its CDs (as of this summer, 23 sets were released) online, of course. These are grouped into four series: Great Composers, Great Orchestras, Great Interpreters, and Great Operas. I personally enjoyed the historic recordings, including one of Fritz Kreisler and Sergei Rachmaninoff playing the Schubert A-Major Sonata. The site could be enhanced by developing a section geared specifically to music students, perhaps more information about competitions, scholarships, or jobs. That said, with its clear presentation, ease of use, and extensive tools, andante.com is a treasure for the professional as well as the amateur musician.

MUSICALAMERICA.COM

One cannot speak about MusicalAmerica.com without mentioning its roots, which go back more than a century. Founded by John C. Freund in 1898 as a weekly newspaper covering the performing arts, from October 1898 to June 1899, 36 issues of Musical America were published. After a six-year hiatus, the newspaper returned in November 1905, this time devoted exclusively to music. Musical America was subsequently published as a weekly newspaper for nearly a quarter of a century.

In 1921, Musical America was complemented by "the guide"—forefather of the now celebrated International Directory of the Performing Arts. (Its current format was begun in 1960.) This directory, now printed annually, is the business source for the performing arts, as is the Web version, where the user has access to a comprehensive database and all the latest international industry news. Launched in December 1998, the site is divided into three sections: Industry News, Directory Articles, and Listings. Like andante.com, only a portion of MusicalAmerica.com is accessible to non-members; to access the entire site, a subscription ($11.95/month, or $115/year) is mandatory.

In the members-only Industry News area, one finds the latest news of the musical world. Users may also retrieve past articles written by the Musical America team, some of which are particularly interesting in that they are not exclusively about professional orchestras and artists, but are geared toward emerging musicians. Topics range from competition winners to new faculty member announcements at schools. There is an entire section dedicated to competition results and awards, where one can find news about past or current contests. A review section—with usually one to three new ones posted each day—covers operas and concerts around the world. There is a press release section and a calendar of events, which lists important conferences, seminars, and workshops in the U.S. and Europe. (For performance schedules, Musical America links to culturefinder.com). These sections are free, as is the Directory Articles section, which contains articles about past Musical America honorees and other musicians.

Perhaps most useful is the Listings section (reserved to subscribers, although guests can search the listings and are shown the entire number of results in the database, but given free access only to the first three). It gets down to the nitty-gritty, with information about most of the world's important conductors, performers, and composers, and the companies that manage them. One can access information—URLs, e-mail addresses, deadlines, etc.—of national and international competitions, festivals, music schools, and much more. With more than 14,000 contacts and addresses, Musical America's rich databases are a unique resource for the professional, amateur, and student. It's an especially worthwhile site for students about to plunge into professional musical life.

Fanfaire.com (or ffaire.com) is the most bewildering site that I have visited. The home page is bustling, with a dizzying number of links covering the screen. With a tacit emphasis on opera, Fanfaire contains comprehensive and lively information on almost 100 artists, composers, and works. Some of the most interesting pages are so rich and cover the topics in so much depth that, in effect, they constitute independent "sub-sites" in themselves. Look, for example, at the one dedicated to the singer Hildegard Behrens. It has her bio, of course, and background notes, but also some original features, such as "Behrens on Behrens"; a complete list of her roles; exclusive interviews; and many photographs, sound clips, slide shows, and more. Another interesting "sub-site" features Richard Wagner and "The Ring Cycle," with the life of the composer and a chronology of his operatic works; the history of the operas; a list of available Wagner recordings and books, and more.

Other than the frenetic home page, Fanfaire's pages are nicely designed, and offer comprehensive content. Most include a nice gallery of photographs and sound clips from works by the specific composer or artist featured on the page. The "music planner" section lists dates, programs, and information about international music festivals and orchestras (unfortunately, the information doesn't seem to be routinely updated). The site also contains links to buy CDs online—in the Fanfaire shop, naturally—download MP3 clips, and view the schedules (and sometimes even favorite recipes!) of famous artists. Despite a server that tends to be slow, and information that's not always up to date, Fanfaire.com is visually and aurally one of the most exciting sites that I have visited, with lively original features on a wide variety of topics.

Lately there's been much written about the declining state of classical music. We read about orchestras in financial trouble, the disappearance of classical radio stations, and the cutting back of classical music divisions by major record companies. But classical music is an integral and growing segment on the Internet. Hopefully, the various sites, like the three described here, will ensure that in the future, classical music will be more widely available to a greater number of people than ever before.

Editor's note: The sites highlighted in this article are the author's personal choices, and the opinions expressed therein do not reflect the views of, or constitute an endorsement by, The Juilliard School.