Would one consciously and deliberately buy and listen to a performance which was "less than satisfactory"?
Perhaps because there are unmissable moments amid others which are less satisfactory? (Let's not get into performances which have flaws - that's a separate issue).
As you know, I mostly listen to opera only. I can think of numerous opera performances where the orchestral playing and conducting is first-rate - but the soloists are not the cast I would have chosen (even though they may be very famous). The converse is also true - a top-rate soloist accompanied by a duff orchestra (increasing the situation with recordings made on-the-cheap with 'good enough' E European orchestras) - who frankly are not good enough, and should never have been recorded for posterity.
These are the reasons I have never collected, and never plan to start - I doubt I have more than 200 discs* in total, and I rarely listen to more than a tiny handful. I don't like the medium of recorded music - it deprives the music of the adrenalin and fascination of a live performance. I have probably spent (wasted?) just as much on going to live concerts (often involving travel to other cities) as I might have done on cds. But I believe I've had the better bargain out of the expense :) Verdi's
OTELLO in an immersive production by Birmingham Opera, with a cast of no-name soloists, remains one of the best musical experiences I've ever spent cash on :) Another would be the legendary WNO
HOUSE OF THE DEAD with Michinson & Clark, conducted by Mackerras, or Jurowsky's Glyndebourne
MEISTERSINGER or Josephine Barstow in the ENO
LADY MAC.
And my happy memories take up no shelf space whatsoever :) It's a different approach to appreciating music, but it works well for me. You appreciate it more, when you know that when the curtain comes down, it will disappear into the ether.
This week I'm going to Handel's
ORLANDO. The tickets have cost us more than a box set of The Ring, but for me, it's a better spend.
* of which at least half were given to me by the performers, so I dare not discard them.
