Bad recordings by professional pianists

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Okay, so what I think is the worst recording by ANY musician EVER is...

Rachmaninoff etude Op. 39 No. 5 (Vladimar Ashkenazy)
I would listen to any Bach over that!  And you know how much I hate Bach, so this is pretty awful

What are yours?

[davidjosepha]

Vladimir Horowitz, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3

Maybe it's just because I had listened to the Earl Wild version first and knew it very well, so I had a very strong idea in my head of what the concerto should sound like, but Horowitz's version just sucks the life out of the most beautiful piece of music I've ever heard in my life.

[scherzo123]

Vladimir Horowitz, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3

Maybe it's just because I had listened to the Earl Wild version first and knew it very well, so I had a very strong idea in my head of what the concerto should sound like, but Horowitz's version just sucks the life out of the most beautiful piece of music I've ever heard in my life.

Lang Lang on Rachmaninoff Prelude Op.23 No.5

[davidjosepha]

Lang Lang on Rachmaninoff Prelude Op.23 No.5

More like "Lang Lang on everything" 

[scherzo123]

More like "Lang Lang on everything" 

I was going to say that, but I thought it was mean...now you said it, so... YEAH! LANG LANG EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!! 

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Vladimir Horowitz, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3

Maybe it's just because I had listened to the Earl Wild version first and knew it very well, so I had a very strong idea in my head of what the concerto should sound like, but Horowitz's version just sucks the life out of the most beautiful piece of music I've ever heard in my life.

...
...
...
WHAT?!?!?!?

Okay, okay...  Calm down dude...  It's his opinion.  Just...  His opinion...

*takes a deep breath*

[rachmaninoff_forever]

More like "Lang Lang on everything" 

Well he has a fantastic Bartok sonata and definitely one of the best Appassionatas.

I don't like him just as much as you do, but...  You know...

[j_menz]

Daniel Barenboim's rendition of Liszt's Liebestod transcription. His version of the other Wagner transcriptions are fine, but this one is just amazingly dull. 

[keyboardkat]

I would take Horowitz' Rachmaninoff Third over Earl Wild's not least because Earl Wild made a lot of the (composer-sanctioned) cuts in the second and third movements, saying that they affect the "shape" of the piece.   I disagree strongly.  Such beautiful things occur in those missing sections, it is a shame to deprive listeners of hearing them.

[philb]

Taub - Studio recordings of the Scriabin Sonatas.
Horowitz - D. 960 (Fleisher agrees)

[philb]

Well he has a fantastic Bartok sonata and definitely one of the best Appassionatas.

I don't like him just as much as you do, but...  You know...

I actually dislike his recording of the Bartok quite a bit. I feel that he compromises the underlying lyricism while bringing out more of the dissonant and percussive nature of the piece. I've never been fond of that style of playing, when it comes to Bartok especially.

[danhuyle]

Horowitz playing Liszt Sonata. Couldn't believe what I was hearing. Is it really him playing it?

See if you can outplay it...

[asuhayda]

Horowitz's later stuff was hard to listen to sometimes... and Rubenstein was notorious for massacres of Chopin pieces (although, he is simulataniously one of the greatest Chopin interpreters of all time.. it's weird)

[david456103]

Lang Lang La Campanella(lol)
Lang Lang Andante Spianato/Grand Polonaise Brillante
Boris Berzofsky(something like that) Ballade #4

[albertus_magnus]

I was going to say that, but I thought it was mean...now you said it, so... YEAH! LANG LANG EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!! 

LOL! I was thinking of the same thing.

[nanabush]

Barenboim Appassionata 3rd Movement... it's on youtube... the ending is awful.

If an amateur musician played the ending like that, the youtube/pianoforum community would probably laugh them away from the forum.  The pulse was super shaky, and it didn't sound like he had any control in the last 16 bars (except for the last few bars of JUST f minor broken chords)... I remembered hearing it a while ago knowing that he goes 'fast' at the end... but this reminds me of someone who is just playing out of control for the sake of it.

Not a fan.... NOT a fan. 

[j_menz]

Barenboim Appassionata 3rd Movement... it's on youtube... the ending is awful.

That's from a live concert, though, isn't it. I rather like his CD recording.

[ktack]

Before anybody says anything about Gould and romantic works, i need to say that what he does in his playing is he takes something and presents it in a way that has never been presented before. thats art.

but i don't like Berezovsky's mephisto waltz

[wilsonl]

Lang Lang on Rachmaninoff Prelude Op.23 No.5

Lang Lang dislike Lisitsa performance on that song at Youtube. haha....
Really out of interpretation at all.