Emusic piles it on

My favorite music downloading site, Emusic, has been aggressively adding modern classical music in the last couple of months. Emusic just added Kaija Saariaho's album "Cinq Reflets de L'Amour de Loin, Nymphea Reflection & Oltra Mar," maybe my favorite of hers so far, and the site suddenly has 13 albums by Michael Torke, up from 2-3 only a few weeks ago. The site also recently added a William Bolcom album I'm listening to as I write this, a Dennis Russell Davies recording of his violin concerto and Fifth Symphony.

One tip if you are using Emusic for modern classical music: Many modern and composers aren't filed in the search engine's classical database for some reason. So if you search for pianist Gloria Cheng under "Classical Performer," they can't find her, but if you search under "Artist," she pops up and you can download her excellent (and hard to find) first album, an all-Messiaen set. Similarly, the site can't find Mary Jane Leach or Steve Layton under "Classical Composer," but if you search for each as "Artist," both pop up.

Incidentally, you can buy Mary Jane Leach's album "Celestial Fires" from Emusic, then download the the liner notes from her official web site.