Cut at Abbey Road Studios from the original analogue master tapes

Features the original jacket artwork

Superior 180-gram audiophile pressing!

Recorded on December 4-8, 15, 18 and 19, 1967 at the Musikvereinsaal, Vienna with producer Ronald Kinloch Anderson and engineer Ernst Rothe.Cut at Abbey Road Studios from the original stereo analogue master tapes with the Neumann VMS82 lathe fed an analogue pre-cut signal from a specially adapted Studer A80 tape deck with additional 'advance' playback head, making the cut a totally analogue process.

Pressed on 180-gram vinyl to audiophile standards using the original EMI presses by The Vinyl Factory in Hayes, England.

Recordings of the Vienna Philharmonic in the 1960s tended to be the domain of Decca, with John Culshaw and his team at the Sofiensaal but the VPO did make recordings for other labels, notably Deutsche Grammophon and several for EMI and this is a superb example of how other companies could equally capture the qualities of this great orchestra.

Sir John Barbirolli (1899-1970) recorded the complete cycle of Brahms Symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic, with whom he was often a guest conductor, and this recording is from that cycle, originally released to great critical acclaim.

In the original February 1969 review in GRAMOPHONE, Thomas Hearns remarked:

"It is not often that one can pick a clear winner among the oft-recorded classics but this surely merits that distinction... No praise can be too high for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra's playing and a tribute is due to HMV [EMI] for capturing the quality of sound so well — and also for balancing the woodwind so precisely, their clear lines adding to our pleasure."

Track Listing
Side 1
Band 1 – First Movement: Allegro con brio
Band 2 – Second Movement: Andante
Band 3 – Third Movement: Poco Allegretto

Side 2
Band 1 – Fourth Movement: Allegro
Band 2 – Variations on a Theme by Haydn Op. 56a: Theme (Andante) – Variations 1 to 8 – Finale (Andante)