Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a century-old institution described as “elegant and refined, but perhaps a bit fusty,” has introduced a classical music podcast, The Concert. The recordings are from the museum’s regular concert series, and feature performances by acclaimed master musicians and up-and-coming young artists. A new program is posted every two weeks.

“Because of my age, I really didn’t know what an iPod or podcasting was,” confesses the museum’s music director Scott Nickrenz, who’s 69. “But there’s a very young staff here who started whispering in my ear and saying, ‘Scott, you really have to look into this.’ Once I saw the potential of podcasting, it became an obsession — and one of the most exciting things of my life.”

A recent episode takes a look at Chopin’s Piano Fireworks (MP3).

The podcast is Creative Commons licensed, so you are free to download and share both the podcasts and the individual tracks.

The first batch of podcasts — new ones will be released on the first and the 15th of every month — will feature works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, among others.

“These are, of course, all dead composers, so they’re public domain,” Nickrenz says. “But very soon we’ll be making real steps forward toward getting cutting-edge music out there that we’re doing right now with our [concert] programming, marvelous modern music that I hope will draw a very young audience. I want to be one of the first to give these great performances away for free.”

More information is available at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s The Concert page.

via The Phoenix