Discerning good and bad recordings

(Cinephile)

Alright I absolutely love listening to classical music. Although I will outright admit I have not delved into it quite as thoroughly as I want to yet, I can say that I enjoy it very much. One thing though that I`m having trouble with, having just recently started seriously listening, is being able to discern between a good interpretation of a piece and a bad one.

Obviously this is all going to wind up being subjective because we all have different opinions, but I was wondering if someone could suggest to me two different players (of any instrument) and their interpretations of the same piece, one of the players being really bad, the other being really good.

I have Till Fellner`s and Gould`s Bach variations and I think both are excellent. While it`s easy to hear the complexity of Gould`s playing, I have fallen for Fellner`s slow, sexy approach to the variations. So I ask that if you do give me suggestions that the difference in interpretations are more obvious than what I`ve just mentioned. What I want is to hear the same piece by two different players, one being distinctly bad, the other being distinctly good.

Obviously you could say, "play it yourself and you`ll hear a bad version, listen to --- and you`ll hear a good one". I just find it difficult because I`m not a player myself to hear someone`s recording and say to myself "well, that was just not good."

If anyone could give me examples or the titles of CDs to compare it would be greatly appreciated.

Discerning good and bad recordings

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