# Have you ever bought a classical music cd recording and disappointed you?



## JSBach85 (Feb 18, 2017)

Have you ever bought a classical music cd recording and disappointed you? In the case you did, how do you feel after you listen it? I am now listening a cd recording I received from Amazon. The cd, booklet and case are in excellent conditions, new but I feel sorry the performance is not for me. I don't feel like listening anything else for the rest of the day


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

JSBach85 said:


> Have you ever bought a classical music cd recording and disappointed you? In the case you did, how do you feel after you listen it? I am now listening a cd recording I received from Amazon. The cd, booklet and case are in excellent conditions, new but I feel sorry the performance is not for me. I don't feel like listening anything else for the rest of the day


I do hope you didn't pay to much, I did receive a present once, it's still on my shelf's, never been played again.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Levine's Mahler 9 (2CD) - awful recording, dumped it quickly. It was in the early days before internet and reviews were less easy to get hold of.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I have hundreds of CDs at home that I have only played once.

By the way, why isn't this thread on the main forum?

It can't be because it's not Godunov.


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## JSBach85 (Feb 18, 2017)

hpowders said:


> I have hundreds of CDs at home that I have only played once.
> 
> By the way, why isn't this thread on the main forum?


I thought not mentioning a composer, neither performers/works would be an off-topic.

It's been a long time I am not disappointed with a cd recording, but this one was not up to my expectations:










I like some of the cantatas: BWV 147, BWV 8, BWV 78 but BWV 80 sounds terrible. Anyway, I have read somewhere else that Rifkin is a good musicologist but not good as performer.


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## JSBach85 (Feb 18, 2017)

Pugg said:


> I do hope you didn't pay to much, I did receive a present once, it's still on my shelf's, never been played again.


Fortunately was a bargain.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

JSBach85 said:


> I thought not mentioning a composer, neither performers/works would be an off-topic.
> 
> It's been a long time I am not disappointed with a cd recording, but this one was not up to my expectations:
> 
> ...


Like I wrote, I have so many CDs, in the hundreds, simply talking up space. Many of them were bought from the raves of professional reviewers. My list of reviewers I cannot trust is almost as long as the CDs I played only once!


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## gHeadphone (Mar 30, 2015)

Funny enough, i have bought Cds which i thought were worse than useless. One of which was a Mono box set of Karl Bohm.

However i recently (and almost accidentally) listened to the Beethoven Violin Concerto and it is actually fantastic, so i was wrong in this case.

Dont give up hope yet!


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I have a lot of CDs that I have only played one or two times. But maybe I will come back to them someday. You may not find some of the gems if you don't pick up a few pieces of stone in the process.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

JSBach85 said:


> I thought not mentioning a composer, neither performers/works would be an off-topic.
> 
> It's been a long time I am not disappointed with a cd recording, but this one was not up to my expectations:
> 
> ...


You have selected as a dud one of my favorite recordings of Bach Cantatas; just the way it goes. I have acquired dozens of recordings I didn't like much or actually detested. When I was on a major buying spree for a few years, I often bought recordings I hadn't heard at all; with that regimen, the duds add up quickly.


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## JSBach85 (Feb 18, 2017)

hpowders said:


> Like I wrote, I have so many CDs, in the hundreds, simply talking up space. Many of them were bought from the raves of professional reviewers. My list of reviewers I cannot trust is almost as long as the CDs I played only once!


That's a good point!. Are reviewers biased? I found some reviews of mediocre recordings with 9/10 or 10/10 quality score and others that many people think are good and recommended filled with negative opinions. Should we trust in reviews of internet sites such as gramophone?


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

JSBach85 said:


> That's a good point!. Are reviewers biased? I found some reviews of mediocre recordings with 9/10 or 10/10 quality score and others that many people think are good and recommended filled with negative opinions. Should we trust in reviews of internet sites such as gramophone?


The only reviewer you can really trust is yourself. i spent a few years reviewing for MusicWeb International and often received feedback lambasting me for praising a lousy disc and dumping on a great disc. Some folks think that their opinions are to be automatically adopted by all others.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Bulldog said:


> The only reviewer you can really trust is yourself. i spent a few years reviewing for MusicWeb International and often received feedback lambasting me for praising a lousy disc and dumping on a great disc. Some folks think that their opinions are to be automatically adopted by all others.


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## JSBach85 (Feb 18, 2017)

Bulldog said:


> The only reviewer you can really trust is yourself. i spent a few years reviewing for MusicWeb International and often received feedback lambasting me for praising a lousy disc and dumping on a great disc. Some folks think that their opinions are to be automatically adopted by all others.


Really? you reviewed for MusicWeb International? This site has the best reviews I read, I usually trust in their reviews because seems to be more honest and made by aficionados who know what they are talking about. Other sites are biased and even gives me the impression that they actually didn't listen the recording at all.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

JSBach85 said:


> Really? you reviewed for MusicWeb International? This site has the best reviews I read, I usually trust in their reviews because seems to be more honest and made by aficionados who know what they are talking about. Other sites are biased and even gives me the impression that they actually didn't listen the recording at all.


All reviewers are biased, let's say he/ she like singer a and has to review singer b.
Enough to make half of the readers furious.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Pugg said:


> All reviewers are biased, let's say he/ she like singer a and has to review singer b.
> Enough to make half of the readers furious.


Yeah, look at me. I am going to tell you most any recording with Hildegard Behrens is a great recording. :lol:


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Florestan said:


> Yeah, look at me. I am going to tell you most any recording with Hildegard Behrens is a great recording. :lol:


I have one answer and you know the answer already: T & I


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## Harmonie (Mar 24, 2007)

Yes. Back when I first got into classical music, I got into through a tape that my grandma gave me. I loved this particular recording of the Andante from Handel's Water Music that was on that tape. I wanted it on CD so I could play it on my CD player (this was one year before I got an MP3 player). Every CD I could find of it had an entirely different instrumentation and I didn't like it as much.

For reference:

The style of recording I wanted:





The style of recording I kept on getting:





(Those are actually the exact recordings. lol)

Thank goodness nowadays we have Spotify and lots of music on YouTube so we can listen before we buy.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Yes anything by Bach, Beethoven or Mozart


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Yes anything by Bach, Beethoven or Mozart


Indeed, how does one capture on a disk the light of God himself


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Couchie said:


> Indeed, how does one capture on a disk the light of God himself


Would need a lot of storage space I guess  and a compliant God


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Yes anything by Bach, Beethoven or Mozart


Did you give any of those discs at least 4'33" to make an adequate judgment/judgement call?

The only exception to this rule would be any recording featuring Renee Fleming...which I would send Bach immediately for a refund, because I would already know that it just wouldn't be Godunov.


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

hpowders said:


> Did you give any of those discs at least 4'33" to make an adequate judgement call?
> 
> The only exception to this rule would be any recording featuring Renee Fleming...which I would send Bach immediately for a refund, because I would already know that it just wouldn't be Godunov.


I may have made some foolish decisions in life (see that other thread where I discussed my previous purchases of Schoenberg and Hovhaness CDs ), but even I have enough good sense to not buy a Renee Fleming CD!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Klassik said:


> I may have made some foolish decisions in life (see that other thread where I discussed my previous purchases of Schoenberg and Hovhaness CDs ), but even* I have enough good sense to not buy a Renee Fleming CD!*


 You would be risking it all on TC, to mention the mistake, IF you did actually buy one, posting that in public, here, in front of millions of classical music lovers. The collective laugh would be Beethovenian....absolutely deafening!


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Klassik said:


> I may have made some foolish decisions in life (see that other thread where I discussed my previous purchases of Schoenberg and Hovhaness CDs ), but even I have enough good sense to not buy a Renee Fleming CD!


and you'd definitely need higher then 24/48kHz for that voice but would 24/96kHz be enough


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Klassik said:


> I may have made some foolish decisions in life (see that other thread where I discussed my previous purchases of Schoenberg and Hovhaness CDs ), but *even I have enough good sense to not buy a Renee Fleming CD*!


If you did, you would be kicked out of your private group. High standards.

No big deal. It only HZ for a day or two.


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> and you'd definitely need higher then 24/48kHz for that voice but would 24/96kHz be enough


I don't know, how would we know when the voice stops and the distortion starts? It all kind of seems the same to me!


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