Recordings you've been happy to ditch/give to the charity shop

[Pulcinella]

Following this comment on the Multiple recordings thread from Mario (Auferstehen), I thought it warranted another thread, to avoid the hijacking that he feared might result.

Without wishing to highjack Pulcinella’s thread, may I ask particularly those that have many recordings of one work, say into double figures, if any performances of a work disappoint, and would warrant, in hindsight, disposal?

The early Naxos set of Shostakovich symphonies (apart from #14) got the push once I acquired the Haitink set (as individual Decca ovation CDs) and the Barshai set (that some of us got for a song in Superdrug!); they really weren't very good, and it's no surprise that Naxos went for another cycle, with Petrenko.

[teamsaint]

Individual shockers in otherwise good box sets are a poser. There is an awful CD of Haydn Masses in one box I have, which deserves the bin.

And what about CDs ( or albums) with one redeeming element?

I'll get some stick for this, but the Zinman Beethoven, for me, veers from the Ok through to the shambolic . I should give it away rather than bin it I think, as many people love it, but it is part of a big box, so there it must stay, till my tastes have developed as Bryn suggests, or the kids can ebay it one day , hopefully a good while from now.

And how about records that nobody else likes, but you do ? One for pop fans,Luminous Basement by the Tourists comes to mind. Not even sure the band liked it that much .

Sorry, gone off topic there. Busy day.......

[Petrushka]

I have only done this once and the one that got the old heave-ho was Roger Norrington's Mahler 9. I recall that Bryn liked it but, for me, it was so far off the scale from what I expect and want from a Mahler 9 that I had no hesitation in giving it away to a charity shop.

Collecting numerous versions of many works as I do, I'm very open to differing interpretations, which is the whole point of collecting but this ghastly travesty was a bridge too far so out it went!

[cloughie]

Two that immediately come to mind are the Weissenberg Debussy disc on DGG and the R Strauss Four Last Songs on Naxos. Ricarda Merbet’s voice being the main problem. I’ve not ditched it as maybe the curate’s egg factor applies but the Andrew Davis Vaughan Williams box on Warner seems inferior to many other Symphony sets and Job does not do it for me at all.
ts, records that I like that nobody else does - far too many to mention!

[Bryn]

I have only done this once and the one that got the old heave-ho was Roger Norrington's Mahler 9. I recall that Bryn liked it but, for me, it was so far off the scale from what I expect and want from a Mahler 9 that I had no hesitation in giving it away to a charity shop.

Collecting numerous versions of many works as I do, I'm very open to differing interpretations, which is the whole point of collecting but this ghastly travesty was a bridge too far so out it went!

indeed, for me, both the CD and the Proms performance represent the real essence of the work. The shere desolation in the final bars unmatched, shorn of all sentimentality.

[teamsaint]

Two that immediately come to mind are the Weissenberg Debussy disc on DGG and the R Strauss Four Last Songs on Naxos. Ricarda Merbet’s voice being the main problem. I’ve not ditched it as maybe the curate’s egg factor applies but the Andrew Davis Vaughan Williams box on Warner seems inferior to many other Symphony sets and Job does not do it for me at all.
ts, records that I like that nobody else does - far too many to mention!

Happy days we spent seeking them out, in the dusty corners of record shops.......( I used to alternate between the Dell one week, and the record shops of Bath and West Wilts the next , with the occasional away game thrown in. )

[Petrushka]

indeed, for me, both the CD and the Proms performance represent the real essence of the work. The shere desolation in the final bars unmatched, shorn of all sentimentality.

I did try, (several times, in fact), but I just couldn't live with it and the thought of it sitting on my shelves next to Karajan's 1982 recording induced feelings of horror!

[crb11]

Yes I agree with the box set issue. There's a fair few of the 10-for-£10 conductor reissue boxes which you get because they include a few classic performances, but the rest are serviceable or worse in historic sound and unlikely to come out when you've got better recordings in modern sound. (I've been listening to the Hermann Scherchen Mahler box that got recommended here: of what I've heard, 2, 7 and the two song cycles included are really good, but 3 is terrible: a live performance with a (different) orchestra that can't cope, and I'd gladly get rid of it.) I'd also happily ditch large chunks of the Brilliant Mozart box - however good the performances, life is too short to bother with many of his early works.

I also agree with the Naxos Shostakovich comment: I had a couple of those as well. Other ones I can remember were Menhuin's Nielsen and Sibelius violin concertos (recorded, as I understand it, in a period when he was struggling in his personal life and his playing suffered). Even as a relative novice collector I could tell these weren't good. My controversial one is a disc of Tatiana Nikolayeva's Bach - I bought this as a friend obsessed about her playing, but to me it seemed she was trying to make it as boring as possible.

[Bryn]

I did try, (several times, in fact), but I just couldn't live with it and the thought of it sitting on my shelves next to Karajan's 1982 recording induced feelings of horror!

Fortunately, my sole copy of that Karajan recording resides safely in the big DG and Decca box and is likely to stay there, relatively undisturbed. With Barbirolli and Bernstein, not to mention Gielen, readily to hand, the faff of liberating the Karajan from its home on the lazy Susan is just more effort than I feel would be rewarded sufficiently.

[Bryn]

Yes I agree with the box set issue. There's a fair few of the 10-for-£10 conductor reissue boxes which you get because they include a few classic performances, but the rest are serviceable or worse in historic sound and unlikely to come out when you've got better recordings in modern sound. . . .

Heh, heh. I bought the multi-conductor Brilliant Classics Mahler box for the Horenstein 3rd it contained. There are some fair to middling recordings of the other symphonies in it but it's the Horenstein that gets the spins.

[Pulcinella]

I had forgotten about the Medici Quartet Beethoven string quartet cycle on Nimbus, which some of us mentioned on another thread recently.

[visualnickmos]

I had forgotten about the Medici Quartet Beethoven string quartet cycle on Nimbus, which some of us mentioned on another thread recently.

I gave mine to a local cancer support charity, so at least it was of some benefit..... With the Takacs, Juilliard, Tallich, Alban Berg et al, on my shelves, the Medici's never got a look-in!

[vinteuil]

.

... the Richard Lester Scarlatti on nimbus. I had not thought it possible to make Scarlatti so dull.

I probably have a few Angela Hewitt discs lurking about...



.

[HighlandDougie]

No doubt heretically, the Emmanuel Krivine Beethoven cycle, recycled to a former forumista. It was the recording quality which I couldn't tolerate, rather than the performances but, as I thought it unlikely I would ever want to listen to it again, off it went.

[Ein Heldenleben]

indeed, for me, both the CD and the Proms performance represent the real essence of the work. The shere desolation in the final bars unmatched, shorn of all sentimentality.

I went to that performance with a recent music M.A who thought it the best Mahler 9 he’d ever heard ! I could have done with a tad more vibrato..