Vivaldi, played badly, is the worst classical music on earth

It used to be that you just hadn’t "arrived" as an up-and-coming violinist until you had released your own version of The Four Seasons and it did certainly make for some...uh...shall we say, ’wide ranging material’ since it was so evidently open to interpretation.

Ahhhhhh...

Often when it's baroque, you simply can't fix it.


Sorry.

@erik_squires,

It was pretty much the exact same story for up-and-coming conductors when it came to Stravinsky’s The Rite Of Spring. Plenty of winners and losers in that group, too!

Both titles are among the most frequently recorded ever.

I find it remarkable how much my enjoyment of "classical" music depends on the performance. Many times, I’ve listened to a new performance of a work I was indifferent to, and the work suddenly clicked. Whether it’s Vivaldi or Shostakovich, the performance makes a huge difference.

Remember listening to WFMT in Chicago one afternoon, to music I'd never heard, and thinking "Damn! That's a GREAT conductor!" Turned out to be Sir George Solti.