[SanJoseCanJunkie]

I was reading some old threads about multiple recordings, and I was thinking about why many people have multiple recordings; I myself have four versions of Mozart's Oboe Concerto in C, and my favorite of the four is Christopher Hogwood's recording on a period oboe.

Sometimes I get new recordings if I know they are going to be totally different (Modern v. Period intruments), or something really crazy like the Swingle Singers doing Bach. But most times, a friend or relative will loan/recommend me something, and I prefer the way it is played, or the sound of one of the instruments, or a certain singer's voice, and only rarely will I go back to the original version. The cadenza is often a big point of difference which makes me like to hear alternate versions.

So why do you get multiple versions? Which one do you have the most of?

(P.S. This thread isn't limited to classical music, but multiple recordings of music in other genres is a bit less common.)

 

[baka1969]

I have bought more DSotM than any. I don't even know how many I have. But over the years I've purchased it at least a dozen times. It's the only album on my phone. I have three versions on my computer and iPod. It's not even my favorite Pink Floyd album. LoL

 

[Henry Flower]

Beethoven symphony cycles. No idea how many, but as for why: they're central to the repertoire; every conductor wants to have his own version(s), which means I need every great conductor's version; and they can differ so much (modern/period performance, old-school bagginess/tighter styles).

 

[Drosera]

14 times Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor (and I couldn't tell you why, they're just there and keep multiplying)

11 times Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen (I went through a bit of a Wagnerite phase in my late teens-early twenties, that's why).

Plenty of other 'multiples', but those two stand out.

There are a few other members here with far more impressive collections in this regard though. It's often very hard to stop collecting. (There are other threads on this subject.)

 

[DeusEx]

At last count, nearly 20 different versions of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, ~10 versions of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, and multiple versions of the Beethoven, Sibelius, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Brahms, Bruch, and Bach(s) concerti. On the keyboard side, the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1, Grieg Piano Concerto, Chopin(s) concertos.

For classical music, especially with solo pieces (concerti, etc), each rendition is significantly different from the others in terms of basic mechanics, to overall musicality and individual style.

 

[Ham Sandwich]

I've got 16 versions of Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D minor. I like pipe organ and that piece shows up a lot on pipe organ CDs and in other places (like Don Dorsey's Bach Busters).

I'm going to guess that the jazz collectors are going to have lots of versions of 'Round Midnight. I only have a small jazz collection and have 6 versions.

 

[radiohlite]

I have 29 versions of Beethoven's 3rd Symphony, and about half as many of the other 8.
Also a lot of Mahler 5ths.

I guess being a composer myself made me realize that a piece can never have one (or 2 or 3...) meanings. If I feel a certain way I'll play it differently, while still trying to be faithful to the score, but I have a suspicion that our system of musical notation isn't entirely fail-safe. There's something spiritual (call it what you want) you can't conjure up from only making sure the notes are all there, correctly phrased and accented, etc.

If you listen to a Beethoven Piano Sonata played by MIDI everything's there, everything is 'right' (except maybe the piano tone), but something is sorely missing. I listen to these kinds of recordings to hear ALL the notes, placed in correct context, with the right tempo relationships, as the composer intended, but I don't do it for pleasure. Is this absolute perfection of execution what the composer imagined in his head? Would he be happy if he heard it? i know I'm not. I'd rather have humans 'add' their own meaning to my creation, that way I often find something I didn't realize was there. Where did it come from? I wrote it, didn't I? Frankly, I think composers aren't even really sure why they wrote this or that the way they did. I'm only talking from personal experience here, but I believe composing is mostly subconscious.

There's the issue of performing tradition. For example: the composer wrote notes down knowing more or less how they would have been played the way HE knew performers/instruments of his time, himself included. Who knows exactly what 'allegro con brio', or 'pp', or 'sforzando' meant in 1805? Why does one conductor (say Furtwangler) pick a tempo almost twice as slow as his contemporary (say Toscanini or Scherchen) FOR THE SAME BLOODY PAGE OF MUSIC WITH THE EXACT SAME DIRECTIONS (& why on earth would Mahler go as far as re-scoring the 9th?)! Surely 'fortissimo' on Beethoven's spindly fortepianos was nothing compared to today's Steinways. Not to speak of the instruments' completely different tone-colour and sustain pedal capabilities.

So I listen to different recordings to 'decode' what was there (filtered through what I believe it should sound like, based on the score) inside the composer, conscious or otherwise. I feel I want to get to know this dead person I never met through his music, this language of unspoken emotions and attitudes.

I wonder what we would make of most composers' performances of their own works if we'd had a chance to hear them (what I wouldn't give to hear Bach play his Violin Sonatas/Partitas!), but with our own modern bias? What will people think of our modern 'enlightened' performances 200 years from now?

is this post too long??? am I really annoying??? Exclamation point!!!!
j/k
sorry, I got carried away. the OP touched a nerve.

 

[Lex2]

That's a great post.

I have lost count of how many Mahler and Beethoven cycles I have. The funny thing is, I buy these religiously whenever something "new" comes out, give it a complete listen or two, and then revert back to one or two that I really like and tend to fall back on as "reference" material (reference for me, that is). Every once in a while I would discover a little gem, such as Barshai's Mahler 5th, and that would then be my new reference. These things don't happen very often, though, unfortunately. Of course mood plays a role as well; every once in a while a dark and slow Klemperer interpretation becomes a nice counterpoint to a fast periodic performance. Before moving on to large scale symphonic works I was "collecting" violin concerto recordings. It started with an obssession for the Mendelssohn when I was about 9 or ten, and then it grew from there. Menuhin, Milstein, Stern, what have you. Naturally everything changed again when I discovered Heifetz (1), and then it changed somewhat when Hilary Hahn came out with her Bach recording with DG (I never really cared for her earlier Sony efforts).

I think Karajan, hate him or love him, played a big part in the classical music CD boom in the 80s. Imagine having to listen to Der Ring des Nibelungen on vinyl. I am fortunate to be able to buy the stuff I want and am curious about so conveniently these days.

(1) "Do you think it's hot in here?" - Mischa Elman. "Not for pianists." - Leopold Godowsky

 

[necropimp]

nothing really in the way of multiple recordings unless you count some individual songs that appear on a few live albums and bootlegs but as far as multiple releases of the same recording... probably Gorgoroth - Under The Sign Of Hell

for being my favorite black metal album it sure took me a while to get around to buying it but...

first i bought the 2007 Regain Records "remaster" but it was missing about 2 minutes of the album, some of the track indexes are off, and the remaster sucks

then i found the 1999 Century Black reissues of the first 3 Gorgoroth albums cheap enough and bought them... because the audio is likely much closer to the original

i also have the 2005 Back On Black vinyl reissue

and to top it all off i have my eye on a copy of the original malicious records CD

 

[Barock]

I've got multiple versions of Handel's Violin Sonatas and Bach's Keyboard Concerti, plus quite a few other composers' well known works - Vivaldi, Corelli, Mozart, Haydn etc. They're all favourites of mine, the works that is, and you often get an interesting new performance slant or approach with the 'latest' recording. I'm going to try to ease off of new versions now though, apart from those with the 4-5 star reviews. Probably.

 

[Justin Uthadude]

I believe I have more copies of Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tárrega than anything else. It's beautiful and a staple of every classical guitarist's repertoire.

RDLA by John Williams
.

 

[DeusEx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lex2 /img/forum/go_quote.gif (1) "Do you think it's hot in here?" - Mischa Elman. "Not for pianists." - Leopold Godowsky

As both a pianist/violinist, this line always gets a smile out of me.

Critic's Notebook - Repertory of Legends Immortalizes Jascha Heifetz - NYTimes.com

Personally, my favorite version of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto is Hilary Hahn's - her Bach performances are also extraordinary.

 

[Happy Camper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by baka1969 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have bought more DSotM than any. I don't even know how many I have. But over the years I've purchased it at least a dozen times. It's the only album on my phone. I have three versions on my computer and iPod. It's not even my favorite Pink Floyd album. LoL

A couple albums, a few tapes (8 track/cassette), several cds, DVD, Laserdiscs. In pursuit of perfection. They lied.

 

[LFF]

I have close to 30 versions of Mozart's Requiem.

I also bought over 24 different pressings of Sinatra's Songs For Swingin' Lovers to find a minty one worth transferring.

 

[fjrabon]

The most is Wonderwall. Not so much befcause it's my favorite song, or even my favorite Oasis song, but mostly because I'm obsessive about Oasis and it's been done the most times in the most different formats. I have it 62 times in my library. Though many are the same song, just in different formats or various live bootlegs. I've got it on everything from two different vinyl pressings, CD's, tapes, etc. Then I have every cover of it I've ever been able to track down. And I have it in every live bootleg I've ever been able to find.

I have 13 different versions of In Memory of Elizabeth Reed. Most by the Allmans, but a couple of covers as well. A lot of jazz standards I have a bunch of copies, but mostly that was inadvertent, as they just get covered a lot. I dont even know which I would have the most of. I have many different versions of The Weight and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, because they get covered so often and I have the Band's entire discography.