What's the work of which you have multiple recordings but don't like?

[André]

I can handle that once a year...can anyone here guess when? 

PD

5 weeks ago ?

[Pohjolas Daughter]

5 weeks ago ?

Close...July 4th. 

PD

[André]

Close...July 4th. 

PD

I thought it might be July 14, France's Bastille Day. 1812 celebrates Bonaparte's defeat before Moscow. Take that, Bony ! 😜

[Brian]

I thought it might be July 14, France's Bastille Day. 1812 celebrates Bonaparte's defeat before Moscow. Take that, Bony ! 😜

I remember walking through Paris on Bastille Day, hearing the 1812 Overture blaring loudly through a window, and wondering if they remembered the story!

1812 is a great candidate for this thread actually. Every major conductor of the last century was practically required to record a version so there are far too many versions in box sets and reissues. My imprint recording was the weirdest of all: an 80s Dutoit version with synthesizer overlaid (!!).

[Spotted Horses]

I remember walking through Paris on Bastille Day, hearing the 1812 Overture blaring loudly through a window, and wondering if they remembered the story!

1812 is a great candidate for this thread actually. Every major conductor of the last century was practically required to record a version so there are far too many versions in box sets and reissues. My imprint recording was the weirdest of all: an 80s Dutoit version with synthesizer overlaid (!!).

Synthesizer? For the bells?

The only version I have ever listened to is the Dorati/Minneapolis on Mercury, with a bronze canon and bells from the Cathedral of St John the Divine (?) overlaid. (With commentary from Deems Taylor.) My father had it on LP. He was a stereo fan and in those days it was a demonstration record.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I remember walking through Paris on Bastille Day, hearing the 1812 Overture blaring loudly through a window, and wondering if they remembered the story!

1812 is a great candidate for this thread actually. Every major conductor of the last century was practically required to record a version so there are far too many versions in box sets and reissues. My imprint recording was the weirdest of all: an 80s Dutoit version with synthesizer overlaid (!!).

Interesting!  I have an old Colin Davis with the BSO on CD (Philips).  I do remember listening to that famous Telarc one at a friend's house (He was an engineer with a nice stereo setup including some speakers that he had built himself and was eager to show off to me.  ).

PD

[Karl Henning]

Not a definitive answer, and I do love the piece, but I've sure got several Symphonies  fantastiques.

[Brian]

Synthesizer? For the bells?

Bells, cannons, AND synth. The synth was used to express the big Orthodox hymn near the end (the reprise of the introduction), covering up the brass. It's awful. 

[Spotted Horses]

Bells, cannons, AND synth. The synth was used to express the big Orthodox hymn near the end (the reprise of the introduction), covering up the brass. It's awful. 

The idea is that Tchaikovsky threw in everything but the kitchen sink, and if he knew about synthesizers he would have included that too? 

[Karl Henning]

The idea is that Tchaikovsky threw in everything but the kitchen sink, and if he knew about synthesizers he would have included that too? 

(* chortle *)

[André]

I remember walking through Paris on Bastille Day, hearing the 1812 Overture blaring loudly through a window, and wondering if they remembered the story!

1812 is a great candidate for this thread actually. Every major conductor of the last century was practically required to record a version so there are far too many versions in box sets and reissues. My imprint recording was the weirdest of all: an 80s Dutoit version with synthesizer overlaid (!!).

I know that performance. That weird synthesyzer tattoo is a disgrace 😠

[Jo498]

1812 is a great candidate for this thread actually. Every major conductor of the last century was practically required to record a version so there are far too many versions in box sets and reissues. My imprint recording was the weirdest of all: an 80s Dutoit version with synthesizer overlaid (!!).

I got to know the 1812 in a Soviet version (on a Eurodisc LP) with a different hymn at the end!
It's another old hymn (not the soviet anthem...) but apparently not as explicitly Tsarist as the original. As I probably listened more often to that one as a teenager than to any other one later, even though we soon also had the Karajan recording (with a choir singing the prayer at the beginning) I still find the correct hymn irritating.
I was really confused when the Karajan ended with a different tune and for some time I thought this might be different balances or whatever; at 15 or 16 I had no idea that there could be a sovietized version of that piece!

[Pohjolas Daughter]

5 weeks ago ?

I found this about the tradition of performing it in the US (which some of you might find to be of interest):  https://www.cmuse.org/how-the-1812-overture-became-part-of-the-fourth-of-july-celebration/

And this:  https://www.kusc.org/articles/tchaikovsky-1812-overture

PD

[Spotted Horses]

I know that performance. That weird synthesyzer tattoo is a disgrace 😠

It could only happen in Quebec. 

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I got to know the 1812 in a Soviet version (on a Eurodisc LP) with a different hymn at the end!
It's another old hymn (not the soviet anthem...) but apparently not as explicitly Tsarist as the original.

I heard that one. It's a chorus from Glinka's opera Ivan Susanin. The irony is that the original title of the opera was A Life for the Tsar.

As to the original question, I think I wound up with more Mahler Lieder duplicates than I needed, because back in the LP days they were often used to fill out the 4th side of a 2-record set.

[JBS]

Synthesizer? For the bells?

The only version I have ever listened to is the Dorati/Minneapolis on Mercury, with a bronze canon and bells from the Cathedral of St John the Divine (?) overlaid. (With commentary from Deems Taylor.) My father had it on LP. He was a stereo fan and in those days it was a demonstration record.

I have that in one of the Living Presence boxes. IIRC the cannons were those of the US Military Academy at West Point.
I also seem to remember other conductors who used cannons, but can't remember specific names.

[Florestan]

Beethoven's Third, Fifth, Seventh and Ninth Symphony.

[Spotted Horses]

I got to know the 1812 in a Soviet version (on a Eurodisc LP) with a different hymn at the end!
It's another old hymn (not the soviet anthem...) but apparently not as explicitly Tsarist as the original. As I probably listened more often to that one as a teenager than to any other one later, even though we soon also had the Karajan recording (with a choir singing the prayer at the beginning) I still find the correct hymn irritating.
I was really confused when the Karajan ended with a different tune and for some time I thought this might be different balances or whatever; at 15 or 16 I had no idea that there could be a sovietized version of that piece!

Are there some versions where the hymn is sung? Was this the case in the recording with the replacement hymn? Isn't the same hymn used at the beginning and the end of the piece. Did they replace both?

[Florestan]

Any version without God Save the Tsar all throughout is a travesty.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Beethoven's Third, Fifth, Seventh and Ninth Symphony.

The Ninth?!    Ouch!  May I ask why?

PD