10 Great "BAD" Performances That We Love Anyway

Vickers was a friend of mine. He told me that they ruined a perfectly good take of "Ev'ry Valley" because Sir Thomas yelled out, in the middle of it, "You're damned good, Vickers!"

For 6 years running, I played percussion in our local Christmas Festival Orchestra concert (professional orch, amateur chorus). The first year, I asked the maestro about adding the big Beecham-inspired cymbal crash in the "Hallelujah" (at the climatic "King of Kings", with the sopranos on high "G'). He wavered, hesitated...and finally gave me the OK. Every year after, there was no need to ask for permission..I just did it, and every year, many of the players looked in my direction and smiled as I s-l-o-w-l-y rose from my chair and picked up the (offending) instruments (as if to say "is he really going to do it?") Happily, I never "popped" the crash; they were all good, and thus the tradition continued. Sadly, the festival ran out of money and the tradition ended. LR

I about died laughing when Dave said "10,000 screaming Mormons!" lol

Dave, one of the many things I love about your videos is the sheer delight you take in deflating the pompousness of the classical music culture. Thank you for treating music as a human endeavor and not some pseudo-religion to be worshipped without question. What fun!

After watching, I immediately put on Celi's La Mer, and you weren't kidding... But for some semi-perverse reason, it actually works if you try to forget all other performances you've ever heard of the piece. Whilst looking at the metronomic markings in the score more as embellishments on the printed page than anything "technical".

One that came to mind is the Boulez Symphony Fantastique with the LSO. He does his best to make that finale sound like Stravinsky.

Gould’s Mozart Sonatas makes my list. There’s nothing like them (for good reason) - but I can’t help enjoy listening to them.

I love the Beecham "Messiah." I imagine that this was one of those Victorian extravaganzas performed in the Crystal Palace. Plus, it has some of the best choral singing and an absolutely hair-raising "Thou Shalt Break Them" by Jon Vickers.

to quote Beecham himself: "If there was one especial way in which opera should not be given, then here it was in all its rounded perfection." - A MINGLED CHIME, p., 73

I'd like to nominate an honorable mention: Herbert von Karajan's Mantovani-like performance of Handel's Opus 6 Concerti Grossi. Talk about overwhelming cascades of gorgeous string sound--even Ormandy and his Philadelphians never made Baroque music sound this lush!

There is also a La mer with Celi and the Berlin Philharmonic from 1947 on Audite. The scream (presumably by the conductor) at the close of the first movement is something to behold! I guess he mellowed over the years...

I love the Scherchen! The first time I listened to the Farewell I thought I was hearing voices

Hahaha - fabulous fun! When you said you had another Stokowski at the end, I was expecting his Brahms 3rd. It has to be the strangest, most perversely riveting Brahms performance ever. Edit: What am I saying? Nope, it'd have to be the Gould/Bernstein 1st piano concerto.

I agree with your assessment of Beecham's "Messiah". Despite it's perversity, it remains, in my opinion, one of the glories of recorded music. Vicker's recitative "Thy rebuke hath broken His heart" melts my heart every time I hear it.

The item on your list that inspired the most curiosity to me was the Scherchen Haydn, so I immediately searched it and listened to it. I thought it was awesome. Regarding the Military Symphony 2nd movement, I rather liked the take-no-prisoners approach, the end sounded vaguely like the climax of a good horror movie. The Farewell Symphony with the verbal goodbyes I thought was beautifully cheeky, it kept me in suspense because I was wondering what was going to happen in the end. This was an enjoyable listening experience, thanks for the tip!

You could speak about the most boring tripe imaginable Dave, but with your humour & gusto you’re always listenable. I will check out the Chopin & the Mahler 7

Beecham's "Messiah" was my first "Messiah". I still love it very much!!!!!

I attended a dinner party once where the guests all brought their favorite classical music recordings. Since I knew there were a few period instrumentalists in the group, I chose the "Hallelujah" Chorus from Beecham's Messiah. The reaction was as you would expect, but that didn't stop me from playing it a second time for good measure.

Delightful. Great fun! My spouse and I laughed uproariously at times. This would make a fun series. Some other "great baddies" come to mind. Beecham's recording of Handel's "Solomon": Totally reorchestrated, like his stereo Messiah, brutally cut with numbers moved about. No judgment scene; no harlots. But no-one has done the love music in Act I better, and the sensual insinuations in the Queen of Sheba's first aria are quite telling indeed. Next, Scherchen's Stereo recording of Beethoven's "Eroica." Fast and furious doesn't quite capture the mayhem, but it's edge-of-seat excitement in the first movement. Thrills, chills and spills. Finally, I'd nominate Harnoncourt's Vivalid "Four Seasons," which was aptly described by a friend of mine as "Four seasons on another planet." Weird,, wild and wonderful.

Bernstein's DG recording of West Side Story with opera singers. I can't get enough of that weird stuff.