Historical radio recordings of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra have been digitised and released as a CD/SACD collection using Nexus XMic+ A/D converters from Stage Tec. ‘During the extremely sensitive process of transferring the historic tapes, optimal signal quality and absolute reliability were our top priorities,’ explains Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings Recording Producer, Christoph Franke.
The recordings were made between 1939 and 1945 and conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. The concerts were to be digitally sampled as faithfully as possible to the original in the highest audio quality and post-processed and remastered in 24-bit resolution.
‘Since the number of dubbing processes had to be kept as low as possible, the extreme headroom at an always ideal operating point and the absolute linearity of the Stage Tec converters were decisive criteria for us,’ Franke continues. ‘The high resolution of the conversion provides reserves for later processing, which also has a positive effect on the comparatively small useful signal range of these historical recordings.’
‘The decisive factor was the extremely high dynamic range of almost 160dB of the TrueMatch converter used, which allows the finest tonal nuances, deep below the noise floor of the original signal, to be digitised and preserved for posterity,’ adds Stage Tec MD, Dr Helmut Jahne.
‘In addition, the TrueMatch converter has the smallest phase error of any A/D converter on the market. Our TrueMatch converter is known worldwide for its absolute neutrality of the sound and its excellent impulse response, so that the digitized recordings correspond exactly to the original with the highest precision and do not sound different. Thus, the historical Berlin Philharmonic recordings will be preserved for future generations.’
Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings have publish the remastered recordings as a 22 CD/SACD collection, in an edition dedicated to the then chief conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler. It contains 21 symphonies and solo concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Bruckner and Schubert among others. The original material arrived in the Soviet Union after the Second World War and did not return to Germany until the early 1990s.
The edition has been available since 8 February 2019.
