Top violinist to release record for free online

LONDON (AFP) - A top violinist is to release her next record for free on the Internet, in a bid to break down the elitist image of classic music, a report said Tuesday.

Tasmin Little, whose "Naked Violin" record will be available for download from next week, is following a much-discussed online innovation by British band Radiohead last year.

The musician, well known in international classic music circles, said she wanted to open up her work to a new audience which otherwise might not listen to it, The Guardian newspaper reported.

"Classical music, for some reason or another, has this reputation that you need a certain kind of education to listen to it, you need to be a certain colour or live in a certain place and I'm a bit fed up with that," she said.

"I wanted to take away any possible barrier and see if it makes a difference," she told the daily.
Radiohead shook up the music industry in October, when they offered their seventh studio album, "In Rainbows", for download from their website with fans asked to pay whatever they thought the 10 tracks would be worth.

The hit British art-rockers' move followed an iniative by US pop idol Prince, who distributed an album free with a newspaper earlier in the year.

Little's new record, her first recording for four years, will comprise three works: Bach's "Partita No 3 in E Major"; a Polish folk music-inspired piece by British composer Paul Patterson; and "Sonata No 3 'Ballade'" by Belgian violinist and composer Eugene Ysaye.

It will be available for download free of charge on her website at http://www.tasminlittle.net