Beethoven works ready to download

Beethoven has proved to be a popular download

Beethoven's final four symphonies are being made available for download from BBC Radio 3 from Tuesday.

Symphonies number six to nine, performed by the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester, will be available for a week following their transmission.

The move comes after nearly 700,000 listeners downloaded the composer's first five symphonies.

Radio 3 controller Roger Wright said: "We hope it will encourage audiences to explore online classical music."

The symphonies, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, will also be available to listen to on the BBC Radio Player for seven days after transmission.

'Positive response'

The four Beethoven works are being broadcast from Monday to Thursday this week, with the one-week download window available from the day following transmission.

"The positive response so far has been wonderful," said Mr Wright.

Simon Nelson, Controller of BBC Radio and Music Interactive, added: "We hoped this experiment would give us an idea of audiences' demand for radio downloads and it's certainly done that.

"Radio is changing and the BBC is working hard to give audiences more control over when and how they listen."

The free downloads of Beethoven's first symphonies were available from 5-10 June when the station played the complete works of the composer in one week.