# First Impressions...



## Bloosman (Mar 20, 2014)

I wonder if anyone else is experiencing the same issue as myself...???

I have a fairly wide musical taste, from Blues, Jazz, Progressive Rock, Tangerine Dream...to Classical...

I'm quite choosy about the latter...mostly choral, piano and Baroque...

With music such as Tangerine Dream, I have a large collection of live concerts, where they naturally sometimes play the same composition and, throughout, I have my favourite versions...I seem to be able to choose quite readily.

However...

With Classical, I always seem to get hung up on the first recording of a piece I listen to...

For instance, my very first play of Tchaikovsky Concerto No.1 was a vinyl copy of Barry Douglas with the LSO and Leonard Slatkin...now I can't listen to any other without "comparing", and I always fall back on it as the recording...

Similarly, with Bruckners 9th Symphony it was an older recording by the BPO with Karajan. Now if I listen to another recording I'm forever muttering...too slow, too much bass, it's getting rushed...

Every piece I listen to first, seems to be used as a base for later.

Is it me..???


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

I go through the same thing myself. After all, it's that first hearing of a piece that drew you to that music in the first place. Naturally, you're going to compare one performance to another. I don't watch/listen to live/concert recordings because the performance isn't like the original recording I first heard. It doesn't matter what genre I'm listening to, either -- classical or pop or rock or whatever -- if it's not the original recording I first heard, I don't like it.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I can't escape my preference for first listenings of Beethoven's Ninth (Fricsay) and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis (Ormandy) among others. And in opera I get stuck on the first listening of the lead singer:

Bellini's La Sonnambula opera on DVD featuring Eva Mei as Amina.

Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment opera on DVD featuring Mariella Devia as Mary. 

Beethoven's Fidelio Opera DVD and CD featuring Gundula Janowitz as Leonora.

Rossini's La Cenerentola DVD featuring Fredericka von Stade as Angelina (Cinderella), and same on CD featuring Theresa Berganza as Angelina.


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## Bloosman (Mar 20, 2014)

Thanks guys...not just me then...

Can't really figure out why this only works with Classical for me...any other genre I can listen to a few versions and pick a fav, which isn't always my first one, but with Classical it always is...

I do wonder if it's possibly because I buy a specific piece after hearing it maybe on the radio, whereas with other stuff I tend to collect for collecting sake....

D.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Bloosman said:


> Thanks guys...not just me then...
> 
> Can't really figure out why this only works with Classical for me...any other genre I can listen to a few versions and pick a fav, which isn't always my first one, but with Classical it always is...
> 
> ...


Considering the recordings you have fixated on, quality is probably not the prime criterion... so you may well be right.


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## csacks (Dec 5, 2013)

I have the same problem. The "original" version is some sort of gold standard, so every difference with it sounds odd. But it changes when I get used to the newer version. As Ukko said, it is not a always matter of quality, it is a matter of expectancies. The point is what quality means and who is going to be the judge to say which record is better than the other when we talk about musical taste.
My Beethoven´s 9th is Ormandy and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Is it the most acclaimed version. Probably not, but it is my gold standard, and I could give hundred examples like that.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

csacks said:


> I have the same problem. The "original" version is some sort of gold standard, so every difference with it sounds odd. But it changes when I get used to the newer version. As Ukko said, it is not a always matter of quality, it is a matter of expectancies. The point is what quality means and who is going to be the judge to say which record is better than the other when we talk about musical taste.
> My Beethoven´s 9th is Ormandy and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Is it the most acclaimed version. Probably not, but it is my gold standard, and I could give hundred examples like that.


It must be pretty common, especially among listeners (like moi) who who lack formal music background. The 1st performance that connects with you has 'pride of place'. Depending on what that 1st recording is, another one can come along that displaces it, but it has to be revelatory.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

This is common, but longer exposure to music and different interpretations can cure it. I've gone back to recordings I loved decades ago and found them much less satisfactory than I did at first. As you get to know a work through various versions you can begin to acquire a sense of its possibilities, and perhaps even a personal view of it that no interpretation can satisfy. Brahms said that his favorite performances were the ones he heard while sitting at home reading the score.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

That's why I collect multiple recordings of the same piece. I am addicted to comparative listening.


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## cjvinthechair (Aug 6, 2012)

Gee 'first impressions'; chances are they're as 'fallible' as our impressions of other humans - no, no - give people/works a chance !


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