The first record you didn't like

[Barbirollians]

The first classical record that you bought and you realised that either you did not like the work , recording or the performance - and did you take it back ?

I can remember mine rather clearly - a very fine recording of a work much loved on here . Britten's Spring Symphony with Armstrong.Baker and Previn . I couldn't get on with it at all and never have since . I am sure the cassette is sitting in a box in the loft .

I don't think I have ever taken or sent a record back unless it was faulty ( though some have gone to the charity shop ) until last year when I was so disappointed with Andrew Marwood's dreary Schumann Violin Concerto a performance so dull it justified the suppression of the work !

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I think a recording of Dvorak's New World Symphony on the ORYX label (a different one from that of today, I think). It was a second-hand LP costing about 25p and had a lovely cover/sleeve - and was quite the dullest thing my 14-year-old ears had ever heard.

I was almost as disappointed by Monteux' DECCA (World of the Great Classics) recording of R-K's Scheherazade, but that is a work (unlike the Dvorak) I've never since thrilled to, the lovely slow movement excepted.

I've never taken records/tape/discs back: I always hope that the performance might "click" with me one day, and those that persistently don't are useful for helping me define how I think the piece should "go". If I'm really convinced the performance will never do anything for me, it goes to a charity shop.

[richardfinegold]

There have been a lot of works that I didn't like at first hearing that I eventually came to love. One of my first classical records was Brahms PC 2. To my 13 year old ears, more accustomed to Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper, the cello solo in III struck me as saccharine schmaltz. It took a few years before I became a convert.

[mathias broucek]

There have been a lot of works that I didn't like at first hearing that I eventually came to love. One of my first classical records was Brahms PC 2. To my 13 year old ears, more accustomed to Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper, the cello solo in III struck me as saccharine schmaltz. It took a few years before I became a convert.

Interesting, it's the finale that I hated when I first heard that work - seemed "twee" after what had gone before.

I returned a cassette of Macal's (studio) Bruckner 4 on CfP. The opening horn call started with a non-quite-split.... Most indignant I was!

[kea]

Brahms's Symphonies 2 & 3 - Bernstein/NY Phil.

This was also the first time I bought an alternative recording of a piece I already knew—those symphonies being familiar to me from the age of approximately eight from Jochum & the LPO. For whatever reason, I found it quite disappointing, and it went to a charity shop and I didn't start actively looking for duplicates again until late last year.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I only ever took records back if the pressing was faulty.

But to answer the question, I already had the original Decca Boult recording of VW's Sea Symphony and loved it to bits. When Sir Adrian's stereo remake was issued, with rave reviews, I decided I must have it, and duly bought it from Avgarde Gallery in Manchester. However, I had a problem with my newly acquired hi-fi, so could not play it for a few days. In the meantime, I heard my uncle's copy and did not like it. The soloists, Sheila Armstrong and John Carol Case, were too closely recorded. I was and remain an admirer of SA's voice in concert, but have never felt she takes well to the microphone. The consequence of my disappointment was to give the new 2-disc set to a friend. Later I bought the superb RCA LSO/Previn, which remains my favourite recording.

[reinerfan]

I really can't remember which was the first recording of such a work, from the very first, if I heard a recording or performance of a work that I did not like, I always took the trouble , when funds were available, to buy a recording of that work to find out why it did not appeal to me. In this way it widened my horizons, as I often ended up by changing my mind.

[Bryn]

Not the work, that I am very fond of, it's Fong's and the Rangzen Quartet's unidiomatic application of vibrato, so inapposite when performing Feldman's music.

[umslopogaas]

i shant take it back, because it isnt faulty, but it will be a very long time before I can face another exposure to the recent 2 CD set of Bernd Alois Zimmerman's 'Die Soldaten'. The best I can say about it is that you wont have to worry about remembering the tunes, because there arent any. One of the most unrelenting aural assaults I have ever endured. It will join my extensive collection of records to play when guests wont go home: I reckon it would clear the living room in under ten seconds.

[Roehre]

Rachmaninov Isle of the Dead.
But as I thought it might be me (I found it too heavy going, too slow), I kept the LP (and loved the symphonic dances) and returned to the work a couple of months later: then it clicked.

[Tevot]

i shant take it back, because it isnt faulty, but it will be a very long time before I can face another exposure to the recent 2 CD set of Bernd Alois Zimmerman's 'Die Soldaten'. The best I can say about it is that you wont have to worry about remembering the tunes, because there arent any. One of the most unrelenting aural assaults I have ever endured. It will join my extensive collection of records to play when guests wont go home: I reckon it would clear the living room in under ten seconds.

Hello there,

I actually quite like it... There is an excellent (I think) performance of it posted on You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bYZJwPQVFw

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[cloughie]

I think a recording of Dvorak's New World Symphony on the ORYX label (a different one from that of today, I think). It was a second-hand LP costing about 25p and had a lovely cover/sleeve - and was quite the dullest thing my 14-year-old ears had ever heard.

I was almost as disappointed by Monteux' DECCA (World of the Great Classics) recording of R-K's Scheherazade, but that is a work (unlike the Dvorak) I've never since thrilled to, the lovely slow movement excepted.

I've never taken records/tape/discs back: I always hope that the performance might "click" with me one day, and those that persistently don't are useful for helping me define how I think the piece should "go". If I'm really convinced the performance will never do anything for me, it goes to a charity shop.

I think I had experiences of dull cheap label recordings of well-known works, but the first work I bought and never really liked was the Britten War Requiem - Decca SET - which many will think of as wonderful, definitive and such like words of praise - I did not like it then and I don't like it now. Ferney, one persons trash is another's treasure - Monteux's Scheherazade is an absolute gem, vying alongside Kletzki and Reiner as the best around in the early 60s, or now for that matter.
I have returned faulty LPs in the past but tend to trade or give away unwanted recordings now.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Ferney, one persons trash is another's treasure - Monteux's Scheherazade is an absolute gem, vying alongside Kletzki and Reiner as the best around in the early 60s, or now for that matter.

- yes, whilst the Dvorak recording was quite clearly a dud performance and recording, the Monteux is such a good reading that it's obviously the piece that doesn't click with me. I've tried several different ones, and I've heard it two or three times in concerts, but, apart from The Young Prince and the Young Princess, well, as you say of the Britten (a work that was my first introduction to the Music of Britten, and a matter of love at first hearing) "I did not like it then, and I don't like it now".

[HighlandDougie]

I've tried several different ones

Not that I think that it'll effect a damascene-type conversion, but, among the versions tried, have you heard this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rimsky-Korsakov-Anima-Eterna/dp/B0009GIGE2/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1404327139&sr=1-1&keywords=rimsky-korsakov+anima+eterna+immerseel

Something of a revelation - and hugely enjoyable.

[visualnickmos]

The first record I didn't like?

That was an MfP with the most atrocious cover design (possibly this fuelled my dislike!) of Rossini's La Boutique Fantastique and Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice. I have no idea who were the performers - may have been the Scottish National Orchestra - just may.....

I don't know why I even bought the wretched thing. I just couldn't stand it from the moment the Ferguson arm clunked down on to it!

I think it was, in fact Respighi and not Rossini - for what it's worth.....