Worst CD of 2010?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Norrington's Mahler 9 is the worst CD of the decade, never mind the year. I really can't understand how such an apparently intelligent musician could inflict such musical carnage on this amazing symphony.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time. He manages to wreck most things.:(

[Bryn]

Not the only indication of your lack of understanding, MP. The devesation is there in mahler's score. Norrington and 'his' Stuttgarters 'merely' release it from the pages of that score. The real 'carnage' is to be found in those performances which qare laden with faux 'expression', especially the sacharine application of excessive vibrato.

[Cellini]

Actually I think I must nominate ALL the recordings made in 2010 as being the worst.

I think we need a new decade free of all recordings.

Then we can start again.

[Cellini]

No doubt for me. Hilary Hahn playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. Possibly my fav. concerto given a very dull 'performance'. Young Nicola Benedetti is far superior, IMHO!

You may be right about Hahn's Tchaik as I haven't heard it - but I recenly saw a performance on youtube of her playing most of the Beethoven concerto - aged 15! It was quite amazing (1995) from German TV.

And I have to say that technically she knocks the attractive young lady you mentioned into oblivion, IMHO! Have you heard Hahn do those Ernst pieces on youtube? Last Rose and the Erlking? She really is in a different class.

And when I heard a TV programme about Benedetti in New Zealand two years ago she really couldn't play the Tchaik - it was way beyond her technical abilities.

[pastoralguy]

The big disappointment for me about Hilary's Tchaikovsky is that I'm such a fan of her other work. Her Bach, for me, is simply perfection. Her other recordings have made a big impression on me as well. The 2 performances that have disappointed me the most have been the 2 works I heard her play in concert - the Elgar and Tchaikovsky concertos. The recordings simply did not capture what I'd heard in performance.

Young Nicola on the other hand seems to be developing well. I suspect she doesn't have the sheer effortless natural technical ability that Hahn has but I'm sure it'll come as she works at her technique. Based purely on a side by side comparison, IMHO, young Nicola beats Hilary hands down.

[Cellini]

Interesting. I've only heard Hahn do a little Bach and I didn't like it, (not that it was bad, I just didn't like the style) but I should really hear her do a whole sonata or partita.

[Op. XXXIX]

The September Gramophone had quite a trash-fest over Jessye Norman's live CD 'Roots: My Life, My Song'. I've loved Ms. Norman's earlier CDs, so I think it wise to give this one a miss!

[french frank]

Sounds like what Iain Burnside featured as 'Christmas Turkeys'!

[mikealdren]

PG,
I haven't heard either of the new Tchiak's yet but, as you know, I do rate Hilary Hahn very highly. I share your views of her Elgar recording and I don't like her Sibelius either - does the overtly emotional/romantic music not suit her? Grumiaux, another who I rate at the top of the tree, was not at his best in that repertoire either.

Comparing Nicola with her generally is rather unfair, I do think there's quite a gulf between them and I suspect Nicola would agree being the delightfully down to earth person she is. Given that you don't like Hilary's Tchiak, how does Nicola's version compare with the best elsewhere?

Best wishes
Mike

[mikealdren]

Cellini,
I think her early recording of the 2nd and 3rd Partitas and the 3rd Sonata is very good indeed but I don't find her recording of the concertos quite so convincing.

There's a DVD of her playing the Presto from the 1st Sonata as an encore (Utube perhaps?) in Japan and it is superb. I'd love to hear her record the complete set now.

Mike

[Barbirollians]

I was also a fan especially of her Beethoven and Bernstein record but I found her Mendelssohn a bit cold and her Elgar all wrong .

The Schoenberg performance coupled with the Sibelius ( which I enjoyed if not near the Ida class !) is stupendous though.

[Ferretfancy]

One particular concerto recording disappointed me, Bavouzets's much praised version of the two Ravel Concertos on Chandos, very routine performances I thought, and not helped by heavily mixed down sound. On the whole though I haven't made many disastrous choices this year, but then I have slowed down my buying and confined it mainly to excellent reissues, notably from Australian Eloquence.

[Cellini]

Cellini,
I think her early recording of the 2nd and 3rd Partitas and the 3rd Sonata is very good indeed but I don't find her recording of the concertos quite so convincing.

There's a DVD of her playing the Presto from the 1st Sonata as an encore (Utube perhaps?) in Japan and it is superb. I'd love to hear her record the complete set now.

Mike

I do need to hear more of her Bach, and as I said I've only heard one movement. The concertos, I need to hear more of those too. A friend told me that she is the only person he's heard that made sense of the Schoenberg concerto, you know, the one Heifetz said you needed five fingers to play it!

About 3 years ago I went to a live Wigmore Hall recital and was quite dissapointed. But since then I've heard other things that I have liked.

I've found her to sometimes be a bit dull, but technically she's way better than the others (Nicola B and Janine J).

[mikealdren]

Cellini,
don't write off Janine J, she is a bit eccentric to watch but she can really play. Her first CD of encores contains some superb playing and I've heard her live 3 times now and all have been very good indeed.

Not totally convinced by JJ's Beethoven/Britten. Hilary Hahn is much better in the Beethoven and yes, her Schoenberg really works, shame about the Sibelius.

Mike

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This an odd thread. I generally avoid buying bad CDs! I think I've only managed to buy one - Karajan's Turandot, which is sonically an vocally dire with some appalling ensemble between Domingo (one of the world's greatest singers) and the Vienna Philharmonic (one of the world's greatest orchestras) as controlled by Karajan (one of the world's greatest conductors).

But this is some way off topic for 2010.