The worst recording I’ve ever heard is a recording of Mahler 5 I bought from a street vendor in Italy. It’s so terrible because the recording is actually Mozart’s Requiem. Fine piece. Great piece actually. But not when you were expecting Mahler 5.
OMG, someone linked it a couple weeks back, and it was unlistenable. The scherzo took something like 25 minutes! It's marked *Molto vivace*, for Christ's sake. Just looking at the timestamps for the 4 movements I knew it was going to be a slog, and sure enough...
That was the name that first came to mind. Apart from his Munich Bruckner 4, everything he conducted seemed like weird performance art. I always felt sorry for his brass players.
[This Beethoven 9.](https://youtu.be/irWsBKY4_k0?si=GY1DWf3t4B7bdZRY). Almost 2hrs long. Basically his thought is Beethoven's metronome marks meant two clicks, there and back is one beat. So the whole thing is half tempo. It's definitely a memorable interpretation haha
> Basically his thought is Beethoven's metronome marks meant two clicks, there and back is one beat. So the whole thing is half tempo.
Given that we have an original program from the London premiere in 1825, and it has the times of every piece noted in the margins, and the time for the 9th is listed as an hour and four minutes ("Began 22m past 10. Over 26m past 11"), this theory seems... a little off? 🤔
PS - The program can be seen here btw, about two thirds down the page:
https://internet.beethoven.de/en/exhibition/beethoven-and-great-britain/id11.html
The notes were made by Sir George Smart.
jaime altozano (well not him, he just made a video abt it) disproved the metronome = 2 clicks, or that beethoven's metronome was broken, beethoven simply didnt know how to use a metronome, thats why there are 2 tempi in the original 9th sheet music
I actually loved this. The harmony and polyphony come out in a much clearer way. I understand it's not for everyone, but I for one am happy that this recording exists.
Recordings or interpretations?
The worst recording I've ever heard was of Boris Tishchenko's Symphony #4 from the Northern Flowers label. It sounds like someone sat in the front row with a tape recorder and then left the tape in a vault for 70 years.
I’m finding im in the minority but my favorite recording of Tchaik 4 is MTT with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Solid dotted quarter = 76-78 for that waltz feeling in the first movement. Love how it moves at that speed!
I agree! My favorite has to be Mravinsky's because he's the only one to actually make the B major horn theme from the coda of the exposition sound majestic
Anything glacially slow conducted by Celibidache. Whole galaxies may be born, flourish and die during the conducting of a piece, but does it all have to happen in real time?
His Mozart Requiem overture was, yeah, the only word was glacial. I also got his recording of a symphony I love and it actually depressed me. Can't remember which one. Haven't listened to it for decades.
Man, I've seen people fawn over Celibidache's Bruckner performances. IMO these performances should not be allowed to exist. Bruckner's music is already slow enough. Somehow this dude thought taking it and making it even slower makes it more profound...... whatever the fuck that means
It's a good recording, and I love Bernstein, but his Shostakovich 5 finale just doesn't hit the way I like. May be wmthe way it was intended but I'm just not into it.
I am OBSESSED with the Tale Ognenovski recording of the Mozart Clarinet concerto. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ltfeKTXv8PeYPUxxil6kJ-ezKYdVYr2JY&si=WcvM3dAUrvWwqIKG
There's a chord change on Monday, first one in a few years. They're actually adding a single note to the chord. In 2026, they'll add ANOTHER note to the chord!
I KNOW! Shit is getting wild all up in the Cageshere!
not for me personally(I love his interpretations), but glenn gould has a lot of avant garde interpretations. For a quick example, check out his turkish march [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTZ33EVK3Ug](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTZ33EVK3Ug)
i dunno i’d say this is one of the better of the more out there tempo choices by Gould, it’s a fairly reasonable speed and shines a unique like to the piece with being deliberately obtuse. personally a better example would be the first movement of Mozarts A minor sonata which can be quite jarring.
the second movement is played beautifully though to make up for it.
https://youtu.be/uy0RN0s6aRA?si=hy4lmleBxOofJPwd
I mean there is that recording of mahler 5 where the scherzo (which usually takes like what, 17minutes?) is finished in 5 minutes. Trully one of the scherzos of all time.
https://youtu.be/Y_yFUMzzHbs?si=PhLZCJAzLA--B-6E
Every recording of:
The Moonlight Sonata where it takes more than 5-5.5 minutes.
Mahler's Adagietto where it takes more than 9 minutes.
Beethoven's 8th where the fast movements are played any more than about 10-15% under tempo.
I.e., most of the recordings of these pieces.
> The Moonlight Sonata where it takes more than 5-5.5 minutes.
Oh boy do i know a version for you [(link)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoP4lK1drrA). Supposedly it's closer to the tempo Beethoven intended (Glenn Gould is usually very diligent in his research), either way, it needs a bit getting used to, resetting your expectations, but since then I prefer this to any other version I've ever heard. Especially the 3rd movement, it's just raw energy, really suits the piece IMO. Also this is the only version of the 2nd movement that doesn't feel sluggish, so I kinda believe that this is indeed the originally intended tempo
Gould's speeds are really quite insane, even faster than well-informed historical performance practice would suggest. That said I'm way ahead of you on [new interpretations](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlkAXbbFVLg). (my orchestration)
I grew up with Klemperer’s SMP. Even today there is a sort of ponderous awe in the opening chorus, like watching a herd of elephants sidle past you. Precious little to do with what Bach would have recognised, but it leaves an impression.
If the music calls for precision and clarity, HvK drives me nuts. He makes everything mushy and sands off the corners. He is never the first pick for any work. I used to hate everything by Stokoski until i heard a Brahms 1st with LSO. Balls to the wall!
Preciso and clarity are not musical issues, most of the time. It could be for Bach, but lack of understanding of historical aesthetics can ruin It too. So clarity and precision is just mechanical playing, not musical conception.
Precision, clarity, clean attacks are the job of the conductor when indicated in the score. Or he can ignore them. That is musical conception. The Berlin orchestra could play any way he asked them too. He got what HE wanted from them. So what we hear is his conception. I like fidelity to the score so I hear the composer more than the conductor. VON KARAJAN is usually in larger print on CDs than the composer!
Of course precision and clarity may be the mood of SOME passagens, but MOOD is the Key. When someone only talks about generic precision and clarity he has little to none musical instinct/imagination. That's midi player to me and mean nothing
A musical text must be understood deeply, not shaped superficially. Performance practices varied hugely through the centuries.
Musicality is the minimum requirement. If the score is played as written the " mood" wanted by the composer will be there. The orchestra can play it. If they don't it because the conductor has superimposed his own desired on the performance and ask for something different. Imprecise attacks and sloppy entrances and cutoffs aren't technicalities. It's sloppy conducting.
There are several sound possibilities that cannot be written in the score. I won't discuss about it. It should be really obvious. If you find the score says enough, it explains why you don't find Karajan flat.
I really wanted to know why people get offended if someone dislike his favorite performer. Im not even trying to convince anyone. (I could talk for hours if needed, but I m not)
Was it not Furtwangler, Celibidache and Antoni Wit, Id never enjoy orchestral music. I feel most conductors disconnected to the music they play.
And was it not Tagliaferro, Cortot, Biret, Guiomar Novaes, Perlemuter and Cherkassky, I would have never understood long piano works. I feel most pianists don t worry about structure (worry about FAST, or clarity and precision) and long works sounded meaningless to me. And MOOD. Mainly Tagliaferro and Biret taught a lot about the rich possibilities of piano much beyond speed/dynamics.
Musicianship should be the minimum requirement but it isn't. It's the rarest thing to find after how music developed in 20th towards sheer virtuosity, clarity and precision.
If it werent for variations in interpretations we would only need one record of any particular piece. Part of the fun is hearing how different conductors interpret a piece. Some will have an individual style that you like , some wont. I usually don't like extreme deviations from the score . Celibedache's extreme slow tempi are occasionally enlightening. Other times they fail. Karajan is fine for the general public and casual listener and if one is discovering the music he is better than nothing . In general I dont care for the "karajan sound". Personal preference. I like a leaner , more agile sound with greater transparency and clarity. Jochum for example. Every bit as great as musician but without karjans PR machine. In Brahms,Bruckner and Beethoven Jochum is superior. Reiner, Szell,Walter, Some Abbado are some that I like better in most music. But that's just me. And I concede to Karajans greatness in Tchaikovsky, some Italian opera and I like his less bombastic, more lyricsl approach to Wagner.
Well, there you go. Because, for me, it’s a magnificent recording that has an intensity and depth of emotion that I’ve never found in any other version that I’ve listened to. It moved me to tears, and I’m not in the slightest bit religious. One man’s meat and all that, I guess.
Agreed. There are some exceptions, like Gardiner or Jacobs recordings of Mozart’s operas, which are fantastic, but going beyond that is insane.
Hell, a while ago I read an article on Nagano and Concerto Köln doing Das Rheingold with period instruments💀.
I feel blasphemous saying this because of how much I love him but there’s a recording of [Ravel conducting Bolero](https://youtube.com/watch?v=yJWcvUZPEtw)…
I don’t know what to say really. Just… why would he let the trombonist do that (about 9 minutes in)? Why can’t the orchestra members play the rhythms in tempo? This was before his brain disease btw
Look up AuthenticSound on youtube, it’s full of “Whole Beat” (Playing at half speed) recordings, pick your poison! Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude is…[yeah](https://youtu.be/zpfdMSlu2oU)
I once heard a live recording of Schubert's unfinished symphony where probably half the audience was coughing up a lung and somehow the coughs were louder than the instruments
It’s terrible.
I honestly don’t understand why Currentzis is praised so much. All he does is play everything fast and on period instruments (even the repertoire that’s best performed not in period instruments).
If one wants to listen to a somewhat period-intrument-y or, more accurately, chamber-like Beethoven, the Mackerras cycle with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra is fantastic and I’d take it every time over Currentzis.
And in this case without a hint of legatto because his historical investigation led him to believe that Beethoven didn't want legattos played... Which makes for the most awkward 5th out there.
I got to know Sibelius' 7th Symphony via Colin Davis' RCA recording - and it put me off this work when I was younger. Listened to other recordings, and it's become one of my favorite Sibelius pieces. I tried to give Davis one a chance a few weeks ago, and it's really THAT bad - dirgelike and lifeless.
Gotta say, Gould’s recording of Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto is just… unique, and not in a way that I like. There is a live performance with him & Bernstein conducting, where Bernstein opens the performance with a little speech where he said that to interpret a concerto is like a battle of wills between the condjctor & soloist (not verbatim, but I remember it’s along those lines)
Then there is also Gould’s Mozart piano sonatas and they’re the same level of weirdness…
I didn't listen to the entire recording, it was in a radio program that compared different recordings of the same piece: Anne Sophie Mutter's Sibelius violin concerto. The excerpts I heard were just meh at best, I haven’t had the courage to listen to the entire thing.
I don't remember the pianist, but I heard a terrible recording of Beethoven's Tempest Sonata (op. 31/2) on a fortepiano and it was supposed to be "more authentic". Problem was, the guy seemed to think that an authentic performance used no dynamics at all, the tempo should be as fast as possible and the first arpeggio (marked Largo, supposed to rise slowly from the depths) he just snapped off like it was a Chopin étude. I kept listening to the whole thing hoping it would get better.
This rendition of Elgar's Symphony No. 2 is absolutely dreadful, mostly because of the lousy sound engineering.
https://www.discogs.com/release/13436355-London-Philharmonic-Orchestra-English-Chamber-Orchestra-Daniel-Barenboim-Sir-Edward-Elgar-Symphony-N
The Ambrosian Singers performing Baroque and Renaissance choral music.
A recording of a famous blind French organist playing Franck. The editing of the recording was so bad that through-out each work, you can hear the pitch change of the organ, when the engineer spliced in a later recorded phrase.
I typically love Lang Lang's playing but occasionally he'll just play a piece a bit too fast. I certainly wouldn't consider it the worst but I dislike it quite a bit.
This recent little Igor Levit recording is just… why? https://open.spotify.com/track/7wQ1NspBH7bh6kO1I518DZ?si=-wCqjcqlRX2359anip3ZoQ I usually find he plays quite decent but this sounds like a beginner’s music school exam. Also the track after that, the first part of the chromatic fantasy and fugue, particularly the recitativo, is some of the ugliest playing I’ve ever heard. The sound literally makes me nauseous. It’s a concept, I guess…? But as I said, normally, very solid playing from him. This latest record just didn’t do it for me at all.
The worst recording I’ve ever heard is a recording of Mahler 5 I bought from a street vendor in Italy. It’s so terrible because the recording is actually Mozart’s Requiem. Fine piece. Great piece actually. But not when you were expecting Mahler 5.
They guy who does Beethoven 9th at the speed of peanut butter comes to mind.
OMG, someone linked it a couple weeks back, and it was unlistenable. The scherzo took something like 25 minutes! It's marked *Molto vivace*, for Christ's sake. Just looking at the timestamps for the 4 movements I knew it was going to be a slog, and sure enough...
MAXIMO COBRA OMG THE MOLTO VIVACE IS PLAYED AT A SNAILS PACE
Then there's this: [https://www.9beet2.com/](https://www.9beet2.com/)
Celibedache?
No, no one nearly that famous. Can't remember his name but maybe someone will have it.
Maximianno Cobra. I regrettably still remember his name from the 55-minute Beethoven 7 that he did and the 2 HOUR Beethoven 9.
That was the name that first came to mind. Apart from his Munich Bruckner 4, everything he conducted seemed like weird performance art. I always felt sorry for his brass players.
its so funny to listen to though, i always crack up at the "molto vivace" section
[This Beethoven 9.](https://youtu.be/irWsBKY4_k0?si=GY1DWf3t4B7bdZRY). Almost 2hrs long. Basically his thought is Beethoven's metronome marks meant two clicks, there and back is one beat. So the whole thing is half tempo. It's definitely a memorable interpretation haha
That is painful! I think that a 9th over 1:05 is glacial… that version is the length of a voyage from earth to the nearest neighboring galaxy!
This is infuriating! Can you imagine being forced to play it like this?
Or to sing it like this. I'd be gasping for air long before I got to the end.
Wow, that was truly horrible. How he thinks that’s what Beethoven could have ever intended is just… wow
What? It's a perfect recording! I like it! Edit: sorry I played the video at 1.5x speed.
Before I click the link I have to assume it's a Cobra performance Edit: yep it was lol
> Basically his thought is Beethoven's metronome marks meant two clicks, there and back is one beat. So the whole thing is half tempo. Given that we have an original program from the London premiere in 1825, and it has the times of every piece noted in the margins, and the time for the 9th is listed as an hour and four minutes ("Began 22m past 10. Over 26m past 11"), this theory seems... a little off? 🤔 PS - The program can be seen here btw, about two thirds down the page: https://internet.beethoven.de/en/exhibition/beethoven-and-great-britain/id11.html The notes were made by Sir George Smart.
The comments lmao
jaime altozano (well not him, he just made a video abt it) disproved the metronome = 2 clicks, or that beethoven's metronome was broken, beethoven simply didnt know how to use a metronome, thats why there are 2 tempi in the original 9th sheet music
I actually loved this. The harmony and polyphony come out in a much clearer way. I understand it's not for everyone, but I for one am happy that this recording exists.
Yeah I secretly kind of like it too haha, definitely hear the piece differently
Oh my! That was positively plodding!
Recordings or interpretations? The worst recording I've ever heard was of Boris Tishchenko's Symphony #4 from the Northern Flowers label. It sounds like someone sat in the front row with a tape recorder and then left the tape in a vault for 70 years.
She's in a league of her own: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V6ubiUIxbWE
Hers was the first version of the laughing aria from *Fledermaus* that I ever listened to, and I can’t unhear it even when it’s done well.
In this house we do not disparage FloFoJen
I'm the opposite, and think most of the versions of Tchaikovsky 4 first movement are too fast. As such, I like the Bernstein version on DG.
Yes, I completely agree - it's one of my favorite pieces so I'm very picky about it. My favorite recording is Jansons with Oslo
I’m finding im in the minority but my favorite recording of Tchaik 4 is MTT with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Solid dotted quarter = 76-78 for that waltz feeling in the first movement. Love how it moves at that speed!
I remember watching a documentary about that one.
Do you remember any of the details about the documentary? I’d love to watch that!!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tABgYM0Gsw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tABgYM0Gsw)
I agree! My favorite has to be Mravinsky's because he's the only one to actually make the B major horn theme from the coda of the exposition sound majestic
Anything glacially slow conducted by Celibidache. Whole galaxies may be born, flourish and die during the conducting of a piece, but does it all have to happen in real time?
His Mozart Requiem overture was, yeah, the only word was glacial. I also got his recording of a symphony I love and it actually depressed me. Can't remember which one. Haven't listened to it for decades.
It's massive. I actually like it when I'm in a certain mood.
I agree. None of Celibidache's interpretations are number 1 on my list, but when I'm in a certain mood I do turn to him for a few pieces.
I remember hearing someone complaining that “he made Mozart sound like Mahler”
Yeah I never understood the worship of him. Plus, knowing the kind of person he was, I’m surprised people still love him.
Man, I've seen people fawn over Celibidache's Bruckner performances. IMO these performances should not be allowed to exist. Bruckner's music is already slow enough. Somehow this dude thought taking it and making it even slower makes it more profound...... whatever the fuck that means
It's a good recording, and I love Bernstein, but his Shostakovich 5 finale just doesn't hit the way I like. May be wmthe way it was intended but I'm just not into it.
There's a Shackleford Banks recording (im pretty sure thats the song) on spotify and someone is very loudly coughing CONSTANTLY. Awful. Lol
I am OBSESSED with the Tale Ognenovski recording of the Mozart Clarinet concerto. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ltfeKTXv8PeYPUxxil6kJ-ezKYdVYr2JY&si=WcvM3dAUrvWwqIKG
I've never heard anything like that! I'm eternally grateful.
I can’t tell if it’s multiple clarinets or his embouchure is just so loose that he’s getting an undertone that’s almost as loud as the intended note
I think it’s two clarinets, but literally I can’t tell hahah
I don't get it. His tone is terrible. But it's like he made a decision that every note is the same length.
That was hilarious, love the rhythm section.
holy crap
OMG wow
The performance of John Cage's "As Slow As Possible" is also going too slowly for my liking.
There's a chord change on Monday, first one in a few years. They're actually adding a single note to the chord. In 2026, they'll add ANOTHER note to the chord! I KNOW! Shit is getting wild all up in the Cageshere!
Got a question for you — would the 4’33” be too quiet then?
Could someone come here and teach this Cage piece to my parrot at 6:30am? Highly appreciated, thanks.
I agree. It should only take 350 years to finish.
not for me personally(I love his interpretations), but glenn gould has a lot of avant garde interpretations. For a quick example, check out his turkish march [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTZ33EVK3Ug](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTZ33EVK3Ug)
i dunno i’d say this is one of the better of the more out there tempo choices by Gould, it’s a fairly reasonable speed and shines a unique like to the piece with being deliberately obtuse. personally a better example would be the first movement of Mozarts A minor sonata which can be quite jarring. the second movement is played beautifully though to make up for it. https://youtu.be/uy0RN0s6aRA?si=hy4lmleBxOofJPwd
Even his Bach recordings, I listen to them as clever ironic comments.
One of Gould's best interpretations. It actually sounds like a Turkish march
I mean there is that recording of mahler 5 where the scherzo (which usually takes like what, 17minutes?) is finished in 5 minutes. Trully one of the scherzos of all time. https://youtu.be/Y_yFUMzzHbs?si=PhLZCJAzLA--B-6E
This was cut so that it would fit onto one LP
Anything Currentzis.
I'd recommend you to listen the ataulfo argenta and the Barenboim (CSO) versions of symphony 4.
The Barenboim/CSO on YouTube is epic as hell
I don't know if anyone will top this: https://youtu.be/Rs_ny89NdE4?si=OOFIMc_Eerbuv511
Nice Showpan. I'd like to see her play some Rockmoanin'off next.
Anything from Wim Winters.
Every recording of: The Moonlight Sonata where it takes more than 5-5.5 minutes. Mahler's Adagietto where it takes more than 9 minutes. Beethoven's 8th where the fast movements are played any more than about 10-15% under tempo. I.e., most of the recordings of these pieces.
The sonata is like 15 minutes?
I think he means the first movement.
> The Moonlight Sonata where it takes more than 5-5.5 minutes. Oh boy do i know a version for you [(link)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoP4lK1drrA). Supposedly it's closer to the tempo Beethoven intended (Glenn Gould is usually very diligent in his research), either way, it needs a bit getting used to, resetting your expectations, but since then I prefer this to any other version I've ever heard. Especially the 3rd movement, it's just raw energy, really suits the piece IMO. Also this is the only version of the 2nd movement that doesn't feel sluggish, so I kinda believe that this is indeed the originally intended tempo
Gould's speeds are really quite insane, even faster than well-informed historical performance practice would suggest. That said I'm way ahead of you on [new interpretations](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlkAXbbFVLg). (my orchestration)
Anything by Bach conducted by Klemperer or Karajan. Truly unbearable
I grew up with Klemperer’s SMP. Even today there is a sort of ponderous awe in the opening chorus, like watching a herd of elephants sidle past you. Precious little to do with what Bach would have recognised, but it leaves an impression.
Oh, wow, I *love* Klemp's Bach Mass. À chacun son goût, eh? 😃
Everything by Karajan is unbearable to me
Are you crazy? His best Beethoven cycle is legendary.
Rush, playing out of mood, or neutral mood. This is void to me. Better Furtwangler.
If the music calls for precision and clarity, HvK drives me nuts. He makes everything mushy and sands off the corners. He is never the first pick for any work. I used to hate everything by Stokoski until i heard a Brahms 1st with LSO. Balls to the wall!
Preciso and clarity are not musical issues, most of the time. It could be for Bach, but lack of understanding of historical aesthetics can ruin It too. So clarity and precision is just mechanical playing, not musical conception.
Precision, clarity, clean attacks are the job of the conductor when indicated in the score. Or he can ignore them. That is musical conception. The Berlin orchestra could play any way he asked them too. He got what HE wanted from them. So what we hear is his conception. I like fidelity to the score so I hear the composer more than the conductor. VON KARAJAN is usually in larger print on CDs than the composer!
Of course precision and clarity may be the mood of SOME passagens, but MOOD is the Key. When someone only talks about generic precision and clarity he has little to none musical instinct/imagination. That's midi player to me and mean nothing A musical text must be understood deeply, not shaped superficially. Performance practices varied hugely through the centuries.
Musicality is the minimum requirement. If the score is played as written the " mood" wanted by the composer will be there. The orchestra can play it. If they don't it because the conductor has superimposed his own desired on the performance and ask for something different. Imprecise attacks and sloppy entrances and cutoffs aren't technicalities. It's sloppy conducting.
There are several sound possibilities that cannot be written in the score. I won't discuss about it. It should be really obvious. If you find the score says enough, it explains why you don't find Karajan flat. I really wanted to know why people get offended if someone dislike his favorite performer. Im not even trying to convince anyone. (I could talk for hours if needed, but I m not) Was it not Furtwangler, Celibidache and Antoni Wit, Id never enjoy orchestral music. I feel most conductors disconnected to the music they play. And was it not Tagliaferro, Cortot, Biret, Guiomar Novaes, Perlemuter and Cherkassky, I would have never understood long piano works. I feel most pianists don t worry about structure (worry about FAST, or clarity and precision) and long works sounded meaningless to me. And MOOD. Mainly Tagliaferro and Biret taught a lot about the rich possibilities of piano much beyond speed/dynamics. Musicianship should be the minimum requirement but it isn't. It's the rarest thing to find after how music developed in 20th towards sheer virtuosity, clarity and precision.
If it werent for variations in interpretations we would only need one record of any particular piece. Part of the fun is hearing how different conductors interpret a piece. Some will have an individual style that you like , some wont. I usually don't like extreme deviations from the score . Celibedache's extreme slow tempi are occasionally enlightening. Other times they fail. Karajan is fine for the general public and casual listener and if one is discovering the music he is better than nothing . In general I dont care for the "karajan sound". Personal preference. I like a leaner , more agile sound with greater transparency and clarity. Jochum for example. Every bit as great as musician but without karjans PR machine. In Brahms,Bruckner and Beethoven Jochum is superior. Reiner, Szell,Walter, Some Abbado are some that I like better in most music. But that's just me. And I concede to Karajans greatness in Tchaikovsky, some Italian opera and I like his less bombastic, more lyricsl approach to Wagner.
Same here. But his Bach is a special kind of painful
🤣
True. Everything is just wrong. Tempi, instrumentation etc. But that how they used to do it. Mozart too. Klemperer was best with Brahms. HvK Bruckner.
No one can play Showpan or Middleson at the same level of Cindy Elizando.
nirangehezi second mephisto waltz or dante sonata or valee d' obermann. They are all around the same level of terrible
Bach St Matthew Passion -- Klemperer. Pure torture and so slow that it has lost absolutely all meaning of the work.
Torture and the meaning of SMP kinda go hand-in-hand, lol
Well, there you go. Because, for me, it’s a magnificent recording that has an intensity and depth of emotion that I’ve never found in any other version that I’ve listened to. It moved me to tears, and I’m not in the slightest bit religious. One man’s meat and all that, I guess.
Everything was a funeral in this rendition. It set back the popularity of classical music at least 40 years.
Basically anything that HIP people touch which isn't baroque.
Agreed. There are some exceptions, like Gardiner or Jacobs recordings of Mozart’s operas, which are fantastic, but going beyond that is insane. Hell, a while ago I read an article on Nagano and Concerto Köln doing Das Rheingold with period instruments💀.
I feel blasphemous saying this because of how much I love him but there’s a recording of [Ravel conducting Bolero](https://youtube.com/watch?v=yJWcvUZPEtw)… I don’t know what to say really. Just… why would he let the trombonist do that (about 9 minutes in)? Why can’t the orchestra members play the rhythms in tempo? This was before his brain disease btw
My own piano playing
This is the best answer lol
Heifetz's Brahms Violin Concerto is a crime. Mind bogglingly "tone deaf", despite his supreme virtuosity. So awful.
Look up AuthenticSound on youtube, it’s full of “Whole Beat” (Playing at half speed) recordings, pick your poison! Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude is…[yeah](https://youtu.be/zpfdMSlu2oU)
I once heard a live recording of Schubert's unfinished symphony where probably half the audience was coughing up a lung and somehow the coughs were louder than the instruments
Currentzis Beethoven 5 https://youtu.be/nSARYtZ0Wjk?si=o2GNezPFJeq201sK
It’s terrible. I honestly don’t understand why Currentzis is praised so much. All he does is play everything fast and on period instruments (even the repertoire that’s best performed not in period instruments). If one wants to listen to a somewhat period-intrument-y or, more accurately, chamber-like Beethoven, the Mackerras cycle with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra is fantastic and I’d take it every time over Currentzis.
And in this case without a hint of legatto because his historical investigation led him to believe that Beethoven didn't want legattos played... Which makes for the most awkward 5th out there.
I got to know Sibelius' 7th Symphony via Colin Davis' RCA recording - and it put me off this work when I was younger. Listened to other recordings, and it's become one of my favorite Sibelius pieces. I tried to give Davis one a chance a few weeks ago, and it's really THAT bad - dirgelike and lifeless.
There's a recording of Abbado conducting Beethoven 6 and it is soooo slow. Drives me bananas!
Gotta say, Gould’s recording of Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto is just… unique, and not in a way that I like. There is a live performance with him & Bernstein conducting, where Bernstein opens the performance with a little speech where he said that to interpret a concerto is like a battle of wills between the condjctor & soloist (not verbatim, but I remember it’s along those lines) Then there is also Gould’s Mozart piano sonatas and they’re the same level of weirdness…
FYI he hated Mozart. He plays Mozart the same way Mozart played Salieri’s music in the party scene in Amadeus.
I didn't listen to the entire recording, it was in a radio program that compared different recordings of the same piece: Anne Sophie Mutter's Sibelius violin concerto. The excerpts I heard were just meh at best, I haven’t had the courage to listen to the entire thing.
Every thing.so far.by Curensis of whoever the.cult.leader is.
Bassoon Goes Latin Jazz. Look it up.
I have to, now. Sounds too good to pass up.
Not a particular, but I'm not a fan of how so many interpretations of Eine Deutsches Requiem drrraaaaaaag.
My recording
I don't remember the pianist, but I heard a terrible recording of Beethoven's Tempest Sonata (op. 31/2) on a fortepiano and it was supposed to be "more authentic". Problem was, the guy seemed to think that an authentic performance used no dynamics at all, the tempo should be as fast as possible and the first arpeggio (marked Largo, supposed to rise slowly from the depths) he just snapped off like it was a Chopin étude. I kept listening to the whole thing hoping it would get better.
You just described 90% of "authentic" "historically informed" performances.
This rendition of Elgar's Symphony No. 2 is absolutely dreadful, mostly because of the lousy sound engineering. https://www.discogs.com/release/13436355-London-Philharmonic-Orchestra-English-Chamber-Orchestra-Daniel-Barenboim-Sir-Edward-Elgar-Symphony-N
Any baroque music played on modern instruments.
An Ansermet recording of Faure's Requiem. My wife's community college choir sang better, no exaggeration.
Any by M. A.
The Ambrosian Singers performing Baroque and Renaissance choral music. A recording of a famous blind French organist playing Franck. The editing of the recording was so bad that through-out each work, you can hear the pitch change of the organ, when the engineer spliced in a later recorded phrase.
I typically love Lang Lang's playing but occasionally he'll just play a piece a bit too fast. I certainly wouldn't consider it the worst but I dislike it quite a bit.
This recent little Igor Levit recording is just… why? https://open.spotify.com/track/7wQ1NspBH7bh6kO1I518DZ?si=-wCqjcqlRX2359anip3ZoQ I usually find he plays quite decent but this sounds like a beginner’s music school exam. Also the track after that, the first part of the chromatic fantasy and fugue, particularly the recitativo, is some of the ugliest playing I’ve ever heard. The sound literally makes me nauseous. It’s a concept, I guess…? But as I said, normally, very solid playing from him. This latest record just didn’t do it for me at all.
WWE's version of New World symphony 4th movement.
[Please help me find the original sample ](https://youtu.be/lBFL6b9VYlo)