John Barbirolli - Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (2012) [Hi-Res]

On this stellar audiophile download, acclaimed conductor Sir John Barbirolli leads the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra through Mahler’s legendary Ninth Symphony. Barbirolli was widely considered by critics and peers as one of the greatest Mahler conductors of all time. The performance marked the first time the ensemble has been led by a British conductor since 1937. Receiving huge accolades, the performance combined superb musicianship with detailed clarity and flawless execution. The undeniable rapport between the ensemble and Barbirolli can be experienced throughout. This monumental recording t is vital for any collection.

Four engineers at Abbey Road Studios in London have remastered these historic EMI recordings from their original analogue sources for release in pristine hi-def. Between them, Simon Gibson, Ian Jones, Andy Walter and Allan Ramsay have many years of experience remastering archive recordings for EMI and other record labels. The process always starts with finding all of the records and tapes in EMI's archive in London and comparing different sources and any previous CD reissues. We consult each recording's job file, which contains notes about the recording made by the engineer and producer. For example, this sometimes explain why there is more than one set of tapes to choose from. All of the tapes are generally in good condition and we play them on our Studer A80 π inch tape machine, after careful calibration of its replay characteristics.

In order to have the best digital remastering tools at our disposal for the remastering, we transfer from analogue to the digital domain at 96 KHz and 24-bit resolution using a Prism ADA-8 converter and capture the audio to our SADiE Digital Audio Workstation.