With respect, I beg to differ...

[Belgrove]

A game to play, perhaps, in these peculiar times.

Some works have recordings that are regarded by the great and good as canonical, always appearing at or near the top of recommendation lists. One such is the Ansermet-Crespin recording of Ravel’s Scheherazade, whose vaunted virtues I’ve never been able to appreciate. Right from the start, the languorous oboe repels, sounding sour rather than alluring; but it is Crespin who sounds altogether too old, distant (and bored) to my ears.

Are there revered recorded versions of works that you just don’t get on with? (No need to provide your favoured alternatives - that would surely lead to opprobrium being heaped upon your own exquisite taste!)

[visualnickmos]

My contribution is Karajan's "Planets". (Berlin Phil. DG)

Nothing essentially wrong with it, but to my ears, it just doesn't capture the piece, as other recordings do. I liken it to a portrait, that although well-executed, doesn't reveal the personality.

[Pulcinella]

I wonder if it will turn out that this thread will predominantly involve singers, as I suspect it is different attitudes (likes/dislikes/prejudices even) to voices that often colour opinion as far as our appreciation of different recordings is concerned.

I take the point about the oboe in the Crespin/Ansermet Ravel (but remember: this was the OSR of its time, and sour woodwinds were par for the course), but Crespin's technique outweighs that, for me, anyway.

My entry (and you may well then counter with: But what about her technique?) is the Schwarzkopf/Szell Strauss Four last songs (I'm not sure that I have heard her recording with Ackermann). Just not the sort of voice I want for these songs.

PS: Hmmm; I might revise my musing above, as it is clear (and quite right) that some purely orchestral works will be featuring. Think twice before posting, Pulcie.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Karajan’s Alpine Symphony (DG)
Harnoncourt’s Beethoven symphony cycle
Solti’s Elgar 1
Boult’s Gerontius

[richardfinegold]

Karajan’s Alpine Symphony (DG)
Harnoncourt’s Beethoven symphony cycle
Solti’s Elgar 1
Boult’s Gerontius

Have you heard any other recordings of the Alpine Symphony?
I think some of the examples provided in this thread are spot on. My intro was to Ravel’s Scherezade was Janet Baker. I have heard the Crespine praised to the skies and I think it’s included in one of the Decca big boxes and my sentiments are the same as the OP. Ditto for the Karajan Planets, in the same box, which I played recently and it made no impression on me, not the usual outcome when I listen to that piece.

A common denominator here is that these were early stereo era recordings, before the catalog was loaded up with dozens of alternatives. Gramophone has a monthly feature where they compare a revered recording of something that is old in the tooth and compare it with newer alternatives, and it’s my favorite feature of the magazine.

[MrGongGong]

Have you heard any other recordings of the Alpine Symphony?

I don't think there are any ?

[johnb]

The Harnoncourt/Leonhardt Bach Cantata recordings on Teldec.

[LMcD]

Britten's Serenade (the recording with Peter Pears).

[Nick Armstrong]

Are there revered recorded versions of works that you just don’t get on with? (No need to provide your favoured alternatives - that would surely lead to opprobrium being heaped upon your own exquisite taste!)

The Kathleen Ferrier sections of the Walter Das Lied von der Erde recording.

Actually, anything by Kathleen Ferrier...

I wonder if it will turn out that this thread will predominantly involve singers, as I suspect it is different attitudes (likes/dislikes/prejudices even) to voices that often colour opinion as far as our appreciation of different recordings is concerned.

I think you’re dead right, Pulcinella

[ostuni]

Bruno Walter's Bruckner 9. Horrible acoustic with no space around the big chords, and flute 2 loses his/her place shortly before the end (and, when the textures are that thin, as they are there, you can’t ignore the mistake).

[MrGongGong]

Britten's Serenade (the recording with Peter Pears).

[vinteuil]

.

Bach played by Angela Hewitt

.

[rauschwerk]

Britten's Serenade (the recording with Peter Pears).

Which of the three? All of them?

[MrGongGong]

I can't stand the famous recording of the Elgar cello concerto
I'm not 100% sure that it's the playing OR the whole narrative around it
and it's NOT that I hate her playing OR Elgars music (though he did set some terrible poetry at times ) but it just comes over as overblown and indulgent


(hides behind sofa)

[Nick Armstrong]

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Bach played by Angela Hewitt

.