Jascha Horenstein - Mahler: Symphonie Nr.8 / Wagner: Orchestral music (2015) [Hi-Res]

I was urged by the conductor's cousin, Misha Horenstein, to tackle the BBC's splendid experimental stereo recording of Mahler's 8th Symphony, made with a single stereo microphone set-up in the vast, acoustically-untamed space of the Royal Albert Hall, in the hope that XR remastering might bring a greater focus and a better sense of the vastness of the forces employed.

"I can't praise it highly enough. The difference is immediate from the opening bars, where the organ hits you where it should, in the stomach, but the gain is evident throughout. This is especially true of the bass line, which now has the depth and weight missing in the [previous issue]. Your remake also compliments the vertical and horizontal spaces of the Albert Hall, bringing the sound forward as though you are sitting in better seats than before..." came the response, to which I find little to add (beyond noting the high number of coughs I had to remove!).

By contrast the Wagner, whilst derived from excellent 1962 studio recordings engineered by legendary Decca man Kenneth Wilkinson, suffered from major pitch problems in the Siegfried Idyll, which dropped gradually from an initial A=443Hz to A=430Hz over the course of the recording, the full correction of which has only recently become technically possible. These recording, too, have benefited from the added fullness of sound brought by XR remastering that so pleased Mr. Horenstein in the Mahler.