Classical recording engineer Jerry Bruck (who later emerged as a Mahler scholar to be contended with) set up a separate parallel "experimental" signal chain at the London Symphony Orchestra's legendary 1970 Mahler Third Symphony recording sessions for the UK record label Unicorn, which were conducted by Jascha Horenstein. Jerry was developing his "Tetrahedral Ambiosonic" 4.0-channel surround system.
Jerry's tapes languished in storage, with only one movement ever edited, and that one for private demo purposes only. However, many Mahlerites were aware of Jerry's experimental recordings, which indeed were mentioned in the pro-audio magazines of the time.
Starting in 2020, High Definition Tape Transfers transferred Jerry's tapes to 192/24 digital. And then began the massive task of duplicating all the edits that Unicorn's engineers had done to their own master tapes.
The results are spectacular (although I have only heard the stereo channels), and even better, HDTT (High Definition Tape Transfers) is giving away a nearly five-minute 24/96 free download of the opening of the first movement, which is scored for eight French horns and percussion, except this recording used nine French horns.
Obviously, there's a lot to unpack here, which is why my Tracking Angle article/review runs past 4,000 words. [That's a hyperlink.]
If you like it, please leave a comment there.
Note, to access the download giveaway, you have to click on the link to HDTT's website, and then scroll down to the bottom of that page.
amb,
john
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