Your Worst Purchase of 2018

[TheGSMoeller]

I know nowadays I'm able to sample, or even stream the entirety of most new recordings, but every once in a while one slips through that I regret. Here's my choice for 2018. Even though this was a 2009 release I had never heard it until this year.

[Todd]

Decent singing and organ playing marred by amateur level editing and mastering/disc production.  Thankfully, it was only a couple bucks.

[GioCar]

In terms of most disappointing, surely the Langgaard box set of symphonies



I had great expectations, I've found the dullest piece of music (symphony No.11) I've ever heard.

[71 dB]

I didn't buy much classical music this year (it was the year of Blu-ray and non-classical music).
This CD makes me think why on earth did I ever buy it? Why had I added it to my Amazon wishlist?
It's not particularly bad, but far from something worth of my limited music buying budget.

[asin]B00HX6FCV6[/asin]

[PerfectWagnerite]

In terms of most disappointing, surely the Langgaard box set of symphonies



I had great expectations, I've found the dullest piece of music (symphony No.11) I've ever heard.

Are you saying you rued your purchaes?

[JBS]

Figured anything with Hamelin would be worthwhile.
Boy, was I wrong. This concerto was so heavily embedded with quotes of famous music it just got boring.

Hamelin premiered the Turnage Piano Concerto with the Rotterdam Philharmonic.  It's the one banal piece in the RP Nezet-Seguin box (but not as bad as this Baker concerto). It would seem Hamelin may have a bit of a tin ear for good contemporary composers.

[San Antone]

Figured anything with Hamelin would be worthwhile.
Boy, was I wrong. This concerto was so heavily embedded with quotes of famous music it just got boring.

Hamelin premiered the Turnage Piano Concerto with the Rotterdam Philharmonic.  It's the one banal piece in the RP Nezet-Seguin box (but not as bad as this Baker concerto). It would seem Hamelin may have a bit of a tin ear for good contemporary composers.

I found it on Spotify and listened to a bit of your CD and another Naxos recording (featuring The Glass Bead Game, for orchestra (1982)) - maybe I am missing something but it sounded like a bunch of empty gestures of garish/splashy orchestral effects that did not add up to anything coherent.

To my ears some of the worst contemporary music I've heard in a long time.

[JBS]

I found it on Spotify and listened to a bit of your CD and another Naxos recording (featuring The Glass Bead Game, for orchestra (1982)) - maybe I am missing something but it sounded like a bunch of empty gestures of garish/splashy orchestral effects that did not add up to anything coherent.

To my ears some of the worst contemporary music I've heard in a long time.

I think you missed nothing.

[springrite]

I think you missed nothing.

There is nothing to miss.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

No question:

[asin]B007788VY0[/asin]

[springrite]

No question:

[asin]B007788VY0[/asin]

Too much like surgical autopsy?

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Too much like surgical autopsy?

Exactly. Recordings from earlier in his career combine a miraculous clarity with vitality. These late recordings are like an autopsy. Some of the blame is with DGG engineering.

I find more to enjoy in his Mahler recordings of the same era.

[Daverz]

No question:

[asin]B007788VY0[/asin]

I really liked the Daphnis with Berlin (performance and sonics), though it's been a while since I listened to it.

I didn't care for this, either.  The quotations just annoyed me.  It made some best of 2018 lists and some want lists in Fanfare.  Luckily I was only streaming it.  Streaming tends to pay for itself this way.

[vandermolen]

I enjoyed the Ruggles!
[asin]B07C57GM9G[/asin]

[Irons]

A great find. Double LP in immaculate condition on a label I admire greatly. No fault of Nicholas Medtner but his music for piano flowed over me and left nothing behind. Sonata in E Minor (The Night Wind) sounded promising, it turned out to be the longest 34 minutes of music I have ever endured. I tried other works with the same outcome. I am sure there are many Medtner enthusiasts who appreciate his talents but for me a blind-spot sadly.

[Florestan]

A great find. Double LP in immaculate condition on a label I admire greatly. No fault of Nicholas Medtner but his music for piano flowed over me and left nothing behind. Sonata in E Minor (The Night Wind) sounded promising, it turned out to be the longest 34 minutes of music I have ever endured. I tried other works with the same outcome. I am sure there are many Medtner enthusiasts who appreciate his talents but for me a blind-spot sadly.

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,21492.msg1168392.html#msg1168392

Medtner was an arch-romantic who not only made no concession whatsoever to modernism but, unlike his best friend Rachmaninoff, made no concession whatsoever to the conservative audiences as well --- this cost him a great deal: he lived his exile life in relative poverty and obscurity until the Maharajah of Mysore (of all people) came to his rescue rather too late. Yet his fate is nothing as compared to that of Bortkiewicz whose lot was far worse both in personal and financial terms. Fwiw these three are my favorite 20th century Russian composers.

[Daverz]

I enjoyed the Ruggles!
[asin]B07C57GM9G[/asin]

I enjoyed that, too, but I also liked the Stucky work.  I've never heard anything from Harbison that compelled a rehearing, though I'm a big fan of his teacher, Roger Sessions.  The Boston Symphony seems to have recorded all of Harbison's symphonies in multi-channel sound.

https://www.bso.org/Merchandise?pageNo=0&perPage=10&brands=1182&searchKeywords=harbison

[Irons]

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,21492.msg1168392.html#msg1168392

Medtner was an arch-romantic who not only made no concession whatsoever to modernism but, unlike his best friend Rachmaninoff, made no concession whatsoever to the conservative audiences as well --- this cost him a great deal: he lived his exile life in relative poverty and obscurity until the Maharajah of Mysore (of all people) came to his rescue rather too late. Yet his fate is nothing as compared to that of Bortkiewicz whose lot was far worse both in personal and financial terms. Fwiw these three are my favorite 20th century Russian composers.

Interesting. As I said "blind spot". I recall many years ago at a concert at the Royal Albert Hall a composer in the audience was asked to stand and acknowledge applause. An old man, I'm pretty sure it was Medtner. I have recordings of two violin sonatas and a piano concerto so have made some attempt but I find his compositions long-winded and if going anywhere doesn't take me with it.

[amw]

I enjoyed that, too, but I also liked the Stucky work.  I've never heard anything from Harbison that compelled a rehearing, though I'm a big fan of his teacher, Roger Sessions.  The Boston Symphony seems to have recorded all of Harbison's symphonies in multi-channel sound.

https://www.bso.org/Merchandise?pageNo=0&perPage=10&brands=1182&searchKeywords=harbison

Harbison has a tough time bc he doesn't write pretty melodic music, but also doesn't do anything remotely avant-garde. This results in music that is traditionalist, refuses to break new ground, but also has little surface appeal. I do find his music worthwhile though, at least sometimes, and there are a couple of pieces that I return to with some frequency—the first Piano Sonata (as played by Ursula Oppens) and the Oboe Concerto (as played by Herbert Blomstedt).

https://www.youtube.com/v/8qqZxBe4ccg
https://www.youtube.com/v/bWd_XN7MCHU

[vandermolen]

I enjoyed that, too, but I also liked the Stucky work.  I've never heard anything from Harbison that compelled a rehearing, though I'm a big fan of his teacher, Roger Sessions.  The Boston Symphony seems to have recorded all of Harbison's symphonies in multi-channel sound.

https://www.bso.org/Merchandise?pageNo=0&perPage=10&brands=1182&searchKeywords=harbison

I seem to recall that I quite liked the Stucky work so must listen to it again.