Web streaming bonanza for classical music fans kicks off today with opening of Verbier Festival and BBC Proms

Two mother lodes of free streaming get mined, starting today, as the BBC Proms -- audio streamed live, then archived -- and Verbier Festival -- audio and video streamed live, then archived -- open their seasons.

The BBC Proms do not pander, but they know how to go big. The annual festival kicks off today with a First Night performance of Janacek's roiling Glagolitic Mass, conducted by Jiri Belohlávek. You can listen in on BBC 3, which has a whole site devoted to the Proms.

Meanwhile, a bit to the east, and up a mountain or two is the Verbier Festival, which has invited conductor Charles Dutoit and pianist Nelson Freire to add their star power to the high-altitude romp. The programme offers an unlikely pairing: Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 with Stravinsky's 1911 Petrouchka Suite. (What makes the odd pairing possible -- and which we won't see -- is a street festival outside the Salle des Combins during intermission).

Select performances from Verbier are streamed on medici.tv live before being available for free for a limited time. The site asks for registration, but, in my experience, they are really good about not sending too many solicitation emails.