Boston Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis : Sibelius – Symphonies 5 & 7 (Decca Pure Analogue)

When ‘Symphonies 5 and 7’ were recorded to four-track in January 1975, Symphony Hall Boston was no stranger to experiments in quadraphonic recording ever since Deutsche Grammophon became the orchestra’s exclusive record label in 1970; however by the mid-1970s, quadraphony was all but abandoned and this album was never released as a quad LP. For this release Rainer Maillard at Emil Berliner Studios has used the original, edited four-track quadraphonic master tape to make a new stereo mix sent directly to the cutter head. This preserves a pure analogue path throughout. The Philips engineers of the 1970s would similarly have mixed the four front and rear channels before cutting but this downmix would have resulted in a two-track stereo copy for mastering, whereas here the lacquer is cut directly from a ‘live’ mix into stereo from the four Quad channels. Sonic results have been further enhanced by distributing the recording across three sides instead of t