KEY POINTS:
Acclaimed British violinist Tasmin Little will give her next recording away for free as a digital download to try to popularise classical music.
The 42-year-old took inspiration from a headline-grabbing initiative by pop group Radiohead, which last year allowed fans to choose what they wanted to pay online for its latest album In Rainbows.
"I've done this with no intention of making money, but I feel very strongly that classical music suffers from misperceptions, and someone should be doing something real about it," said Little.
"I want to make it more accessible without downgrading the product, because you don't need to put a beat to this music to make it work," she added in an apparent reference to popular crossover acts that blend classical and pop genres.
"Just the fact that people can listen to it on a computer means that hopefully they won't feel a need to have an education or be from a particular background or a certain sector of society."
The album, called The Naked Violin, will include commentary from Little and is available at www.tasminlittle.net next week.
"These three extremely different pieces of music [Bach, Patterson and Ysaye] will show the variety a single violin is able to produce, totally unadorned," Little said.
REUTERS