Recorded music

[chickenfeet]

[Poll #709751]

If it isn't obvious, this is primarily aimed at people who buy recordings of "classical" music.

Comments

[pshtaku.livejournal.com]

For me, the poor recording quality would detract from the performance!
And I don't think I have the skills to differentiate between a good performance and an outstanding one!

With classical, the background noise - especially for the quiet passages - has to be almost nil, with the exception of normal orchestra sounds (seat shifting, slight string twanging etc!) If there is nothing there, it sounds artificial to me!

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that I could give an absolute answer - partly because I'm so willing to have multiple recordings. If a performance is outstanding in some way, I'll happily accept a poor recording. But I wouldn't necessarily want that to be the only version that I have: I might also want a recording in better sound, even if it's a lesser performance. If that makes sense!

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Makes a lot of sense

[thidwick.livejournal.com]

I'll admit that my classical music collection is sorely lacking. I starting buying classical music when I was in high school, and at that time (throughout college, really) my primary concern was with cost, since I had no money! The vast majority of my classical collection is CDs I got for generally under $5 each, either on sale or because they're simply just from Very Cheap "labels" (a term I use with some trepidation in this case). These days, I buy very, very few CDs of any type, but when I buy classical I'm definitely more concerned with performance and quality than I once was.

[damiel.livejournal.com]

I may allow a recording of the asthma ward variety (that is just a great mental image, by the way; sound engineers and fat ladies in helmets amidst wheezing toddlers) as a second choice if I already own an excellent performance that at least wasn't recorded on wax cylinders. Case in point, the live Callas and del Monaco Andrea Chenier I was listening to today. It'll make your inner ear bleed, but it's hard to find a performance that electrifying.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

that is just a great mental image, by the way

Inspired by Fritz Busch's 1935 Glyndebourne recording of Idomeneo.

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

Oh, wait -- I didn't read closely enough. I want to change my answer to option 3

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Other criteria, please comment?

I know little about classical music, so I tend to buy recordings from budget labels like Naxos, since I am then more willing to experiment.

I find it hard to work out which are the best recordings anyway! I am not sufficiently keen to buy, for instance, the Penguin Guide to Classical Music (or whatever it is called).

A lot of the time I record things off the radio, and if I like a piece I will then seek out other (legitimate) recordings.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

My experience with Naxos has been very positive. Generally they are good performances, well recorded. And the price is outstanding.

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

This also depends on how much I actually know about the piece in question. For Renaissance music in particular, I don't mind hearing background noise from an audience, or from crap recording equipment.

But there are CDs I've thrown out because of a single flaw in the recording, so *shrug*