# Classical you bought but got rid of because you didn't like it, and why.



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Cendrillon (Massenet): too dark, in spite of von Stade in the lead role, the whole opera just felt creepy. Much prefer La Cenerentola.

Beethoven symphonies by Hanover Band. Well not rid of yet but will be up on Amazon soon. Just don't care for the thin, weak-sounding performance.

Furtwangler Conducts Beethoven (WWII recordings). Going up on Amazon soon also. Just don't get into scratchy old Beethoven when there are so many good sets with good sound quality. 

Handel: Furore - Mad Scenes From Operas with Joice DiDonato. Not that I don't like Joyce, but this CD just was awful and my co-worker who is a trained singer (mezzo) and sings in local performances, likewise could not stand this CD. I don't think it is Joyce, but perhaps the material she was singing.

Higginbottom Messiah Oxford, all male. Countertenors just seem creepy to me, but I am stuck with them for Chando's Anthems. 

I'll post more as/if I think of them.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Schoenberg, violin concerto, A Survivor from Warsaw etc. (Robert Craft, Naxos)
- I generally dislike the music of Schoenberg, after many listening of the violin concerto, it fails to engage me, so I gave the CD a friend. A Survivor from Warsaw was better but I bought the CD mainly for the violin concerto.

Bartok, Bluebeard's Castle
- A short one hour atonal opera by Bartok. It did not engage me and given the vast majority of operas around based on traditional models from Baroque to Puccini, I have no reason to want to keep it. Gave/lent it to friend.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I had picked it up used for the late work, Old Norwegian Melody with Variations:









Grieg : Symphony, Norwegian Variations, Funeral March, In Autumn
Järvi/Gothenburg

The Symphony is a student work, I believe, and was later disowned by Grieg, as he had felt it was too German-he wanted to write Norwegian music. In Autumn and the Funeral March for a friend are shorter works, not major compositions by the composer. Old Norwegian Variations was quite nice, but, after hearing them all quite a few times, I felt that this was not an album I needed to have in my permanent collection. For a Grieg fanatic, it would surely be an essential album, but I don't know enough about Grieg to have become ecstatic about his music.

I sold it back to the shop after enjoying it for a few weeks. It is probably the only true classical album I deleted from my collection all last year.

There was another, which kind of is classical, but is actually not classical at all, but a 'symphonized' version of a soundtrack:








Elmer Bernstein : The Magnificent Seven; Hallelujah Trail

I had a credit at a shop and was unable to find anything, so I took a chance on this. I tried to talk myself into liking it, since I liked the movie, but I came to my senses after a couple of listens. While a recomposed version of the soundtrack music, it just didn't work for me at all... and Hallelujah Trail was a choral work that was just plain cheesy to me.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I already had a thread going on this, but I hadn't necessarily confined it to classical only:

Latest Deletes / Culled Albums

I don't know whether they should be amalgamated


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

brotagonist said:


> I already had a thread going on this, but I hadn't necessarily confined it to classical only:
> 
> Latest Deletes / Culled Albums
> 
> I don't know whether they should be amalgamated


That'll do. Perhaps one of the moderators can take this thread and tack it to the end of your thread.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

My thread fizzled after some initial interest. Perhaps your title will fare better? Or perhaps few of us ever cull classical music?


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Mahler's 5th conducted by Karajan - discovered Bernstein's soon after and never wanted to hear this again.

Gulda's Bach WTC - too mannered, yet somehow without any of the insight of Gould.

Solti and the Chicago Symphony doing Bach's B minor mass - obviously, I bought this before I knew anything.

A bunch of 16th century music performed by the Tallis Scholars - I've gradually found new recordings of many of my 16th century favorites that I originally discovered through the Tallis Scholars. I've come to realize the Tallis Scholars' sound is glossy, overly smooth, top-heavy and makes all music sound the same. Peter Phillips is like the Herbert von Karajan of early choral music.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Interesting timing for this as I was just doing some reorganizing of my collection and came across a few that I had pulled out over the years...

Howard Hanson - Merry Mount Symphony - Nashville Symphony/Schermerhorn
William Wallace - Creation Symphony - BBC Scottish SO/Brabbins
Gustav Holst - The Wandering Scholar - Northern Sinfonia/Hickox

I have a feeling that Ned Rorem's 3 Symphonies (Bournemouth/Serebrier) is about to suffer the same fate.

Anyone want them?


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

brotagonist said:


> My thread fizzled after some initial interest. Perhaps your title will fare better? Or perhaps few of us ever cull classical music?


I resurrected it.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

brotagonist said:


> My thread fizzled after some initial interest. Perhaps your title will fare better? Or perhaps few of us ever cull classical music?


We can give it a try. Have both threads going. Maybe mine should have been in the other forum. Anyway, I remembered a few more CDs I got rid of:

Sutherland 2 CD Aria set. I guess Sutherland just does not excite me. And I do have her on La Fille du Regiment with Pavarotti and his 8 high Cs. For that matter, Pavarotti, other than those 8 high C's does not excite me either, but I have no other CDs of Pavarotti to get rid of.

Messiah, conducted by Koopman. Male alto (countertenor I guess).

Messiah, Harry Christophers and the Sixteen. Again, those pesky countertenors.

I do retain five Messiahs though each with women singing the alto parts.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

ArtMusic said:


> Schoenberg, violin concerto, A Survivor from Warsaw etc. (Robert Craft, Naxos)
> - I generally dislike the music of Schoenberg, after many listening of the violin concerto, it fails to engage me, so I gave the CD a friend. A Survivor from Warsaw was better but I bought the CD mainly for the violin concerto.
> 
> Bartok, Bluebeard's Castle
> - A short one hour atonal opera by Bartok. It did not engage me and given the vast majority of operas around based on traditional models from Baroque to Puccini, I have no reason to want to keep it. Gave/lent it to friend.


I'm sorry to hear that you got rid of _Bluebeard's Castle_. It's early Bartok, darkly Romantic in style, really quite far from being "atonal." When I first saw it, decades ago now, I found it disturbing and baffling (maybe more dramatically than musically), but it's now one of my favorite operas. I think you'll find it rewarding to return to some day.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

My policy is to never get rid of any classical music when I acquire.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I think the only discs I have gotten rid of are from the early days of CD when I would buy favourite works just to get a CD version. 
Late Mozart symphonies by Jane Glover and the London Mozart Players
Elgar Enigma Variations by Previn 
I remember being distinctly underwhelmed by both 
There was something of a glut at that time of new recordings taking advantage of new digital media, with rather indifferent performances as a result. Karajan's last Beethoven cycle always struck me as something that 'had to be done' rather than a 'labour of love'


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

I've only gotten rid of a few recordings, because I bought them hastily at a used CD store, not realizing that they were ancient recordings with bad sound quality. I've never gotten rid of a recording because I didn't like the work itself.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I've never till now owned enough classical music that I could get rid of it. 

I owned one LP - 'The Planets' conducted by Sir Adrian Boult which I bought from my elder brother when he went off it. I gave it to a charity shop a couple of years ago because I rarely listen to LPs now, though we do have a gramophone; also, because I know The Planets too well after this sole LP got played to death in my youth.

And now, since we buy sparingly of what we really want, it's unlikely that I would get rid of anything. 

In the intervening period, about twenty years ago, we bought a cd which we'd heard on Classic fm. It included a version of Allegri's Miserere, which was why we got it. But everything else seemed a bit draggy, so we gave it to our organist at church. 

There you are - with motormouths like me, there is plenty of material for two threads!


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Now that I buy my classical music off iTunes so I never have this problem anymore.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I picked up the Brilliant Classics "complete Mozart" second-hand and made some interesting discoveries (ever hear his pseudo-Baroque organ works?), but since I already had most of Mozart's greatest works (already more Mozart than I ever seem to want to listen to) I just burned a few favorite items and passed the set along to someone else.

I rarely get rid of music once I've decided to add it to my collection, since I store CDs without their cases and they occupy only a quarter of the shelf space that way. It's amazing how little of your living room 4000 CDs can take up, and the idea of an extensive music reference library pleases me, even if I never actually listen to some of it.


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## Selby (Nov 17, 2012)

Albert7 said:


> Now that I buy my classical music off iTunes so I never have this problem anymore.


Any concerns about the quality of their downloads? They're like 230 bit rate MP3s, right?


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

I also have that Mozart box set from Brilliant, given to me by a friend who had finished with it, and I'm afraid it still sits on top of the bookshelves silently reproaching me for never having listened to anything from it, even once! Now I'm giving it to Wood, because he actually likes stuff like baroque organ works, and had even been thinking about buying this box set, so it's obviously meant to be his!

I once threw away an LP of Kathleen Ferrier's Das Lied von der Erde. I was pretty young at the time- fourteen?- and thought it was the most boring thing I'd ever heard. I haven't tried it since, though YouTube means that there's no longer any reason to hold physical copies of music you don't like, just on the off chance that you might learn to appreciate it years in the future.

I think a few LP box sets of operas got chucked out as well. I don't recall the details, but the haphazard nature of second hand record buying before the internet meant that complete operas, bought without hearing them first, were generally a poor bet. 

I have a Gramophone magazine freebie cover disc that I've been holding onto forever because it's got William Parker singing Miroirs Brûlants, but now I have the complete Poulenc on Erato (highly recommended!) which includes that recording, I can let it go. There must be plenty of other similarly redundant stuff that I'll chuck out later in the year when I move.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Selby said:


> Any concerns about the quality of their downloads? They're like 230 bit rate MP3s, right?


Better in some cases. AAC file format is awesome and Apple can access the original masters from the labels so in some cases much better sound quality.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I really hate the idea of discarding any recording that I buy. However, i did dump one that I can remember. It was Bach's Goldberg Variations led by Bernard Labadie and his crew. His approach was to play about half the variations in a consort music style, the other half in a bloated "Hollywood Bowl" style. The bloated style really pissed me off, so the disc went into the garbage.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Bulldog said:


> I really hate the idea of discarding any recording that I buy. However, i did dump one that I can remember. It was Bach's Goldberg Variations led by Bernard Labadie and his crew. His approach was to play about half the variations in a consort music style, the other half in a bloated "Hollywood Bowl" style. The bloated style really pissed me off, so the disc went into the garbage.


Man I could have used a new beer coaster!  thanks for the dis recommendation and I will check it out on Apple Music.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Albert7 said:


> Man I could have used a new beer coaster!  thanks for the dis recommendation and I will check it out on Apple Music.


I won't be surprised if you love the performances.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I had Lassus' Penential Psalms by Henry's Eight for a day. Fortunately, my used CD store lets you return purchases before 30 days. They asked my why I returned it. "It's boring." 'Nuff said, I guess.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Liszt's Transcendental Etudes. Back when I was easily impressed by technique. Now I don't find any of them to be really musical or worth multiple listenings. The ones that are interesting in some way don't interest me enough.


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

A LP of Tchaikovsky's symphony no. 5 conducted by Bernstein. The sound quality was bad that I couldn't finish to listen to it. It was one of the cheap and bad LPs that my dad's uncle bought .


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

When I was a kid I bought an LP of 'Heterophonie' by Maurice Kagel on Wergo/Heliodor from my local newspaper shop. I was about 14 at the time and it was too much for me - far too avant garde (I was just getting into Shostakovich). I worked for the shop as a paper boy, so the owner - after much pleading - allowed me to return the LP. Now, of course, I wish I still had it!


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

Figleaf said:


> I also have that Mozart box set from Brilliant, given to me by a friend who had finished with it, and I'm afraid it still sits on top of the bookshelves silently reproaching me for never having listened to anything from it, even once! Now I'm giving it to Wood, because he actually likes stuff like baroque organ works, and had even been thinking about buying this box set, so it's obviously meant to be his!
> 
> *I once threw away an LP of Kathleen Ferrier's Das Lied von der Erde*. I was pretty young at the time- fourteen?- and thought it was the most boring thing I'd ever heard. I haven't tried it since, though YouTube means that there's no longer any reason to hold physical copies of music you don't like, just on the off chance that you might learn to appreciate it years in the future.
> 
> ...


Thank you for the Mozart boxset, dear.

It will go some way in recompense for destroying the Ferrier LP. Das Lied von der Erde too!:devil:


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I never get rid of anything. That's my problem, though I'm not otherwise a horder. 

I do have a few CDs I never ripped to mp3 or cataloged. I threw in a far corner of the top of a closet. They are mostly ill fated rock/pop, but also a couple of classical recordings I didn;t know were mono until I got them home. I just can't relate to mono.


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## gHeadphone (Mar 30, 2015)

isorhythm said:


> Mahler's 5th conducted by Karajan - discovered Bernstein's soon after and never wanted to hear this again.


Wow, i love Karajans Mahlers 5th, ill have to check out Bernsteins version!


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

I bought this two or three years ago. It seemed like a good idea at the time because I occasionally pluck at an electric guitar myself but after a couple of listens I had to admit that it was like being repeatedly hit over the head with a large frying pan.

That's not to disparage Zane Banks' "chops". But there seemed to be little or no variation in tone. Anyway, some Naxos description here.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

I've never regretted buying any of the CDs I own. This is largely due to the fact that I read as many reviews as possible before purchasing. I don't buy crap.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I've never got rid of anything, almsot everything I have I really like. There are a few Elgar CDs which I have to remind myself to listen to them and get to know Elgar better.


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