In classical, the Reference Recordings recording of Respighi's Church Windows is the finest recording of the worst performance I've heard of that piece. Also, the Water Lily Acoustics recordings of the Dvorak overtures with the Philadelphia Orchestra is an excellent recording of fine performances that accurately depicts the driest acoustical venue this side of an anecholic chamber--really not that much fun to listen to it. And some of the early Telarcs featured some lackluster or, to be charitable, "unusual" performances from what you would have hoped would be top-flight orchestras and conductors, as well as the overly-ripe bass drum in their early years.
J. Gordon Holt used to have a rule that the better the recording, the worse the performance. In classical recordings, that was probably true for a while, but the last decadse or so the audiophile labels have been coming up with some fine conductors and orchestras with decent performances (a benefit of the major labels scaling back), so I don't think that holds true anymore, at least as a generalization.
J. Gordon Holt used to have a rule that the better the recording, the worse the performance. In classical recordings, that was probably true for a while, but the last decadse or so the audiophile labels have been coming up with some fine conductors and orchestras with decent performances (a benefit of the major labels scaling back), so I don't think that holds true anymore, at least as a generalization.