The Brahms cycle with Sir Simon Rattle [Limited Edition] (180g D2D, 6 LP)

Label: Berliner Philharmoniker BPHR 160041

The Absolute Sound Super LP List 2017 !!!

Signed and numbered limited edition!
Accompanying book, Hardcover, 72 pages
This recording is not available in any other format (e.g. CD or download)
Analogue Recording · Analogue Master
Since the orchestra was established in 1882, the Berliner Philharmoniker have had a special relationship with Johannes Brahms, who also conducted them himself. Performances of his symphonies have always been a focal point of each chief conductors’s term of office, including Sir Simon Rattle under whose direction the Berliner Philharmoniker have given performances and made recordings of this music whose exemplary status has been testified to.
The performances from September 2014 documented here were recorded with just one single pair of stereo microphones which allows a sound to be captured that is extraordinarily close to the original acoustics of the Philharmonie.
The sound was cut directly into the master disc via the shortest signal flow at the moment of performance. There was no subsequent processing and therefore no associated faults or copying losses. The process from recording to reproduction was entirely analogue. Through the elaborate recording and production process, this edition represents so to speak the optimum in analogue sound recording.
Not only artistically, but also in terms of recording technology and craftsmanship, the present edition holds an outstanding position in the media history of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Direct to disc: this term represents the ultimate in analogue recording quality. With no intervention and without any post-processing, the sound is cut directly into a master disc at the moment of the performance – the basis for a vinyl release of unique tonal authenticity. This complex, end-to-end analogue process is rarely used in today’s digital age. Now, it was used to document a performance cycle of all of Brahms’s symphonies by the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle, and the result is available in an exclusive and limited vinyl edition.
Another feature is the purist recording method, using just one single pair of stereo microphones. In this way, a sound was able to be captured that is extraordinarily close to the original acoustics of the Philharmonie.
The Brahms cycle in the direct to disc process is only on release in the Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings vinyl edition and not on any digital medium. Corresponding to Johannes Brahms’s year of birth, it is limited to 1833 copies worldwide. The edition, produced to a particularly high standard, and with a comprehensive accompanying book, is not only a collector’s item for every vinyl fan – it also embodies a milestone in the rich media history of the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Berliner Philharmoniker

Sir Simon Rattle Conductor

Johannes Brahms

Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73
Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90
Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98

Recorded live at the Berlin Philharmonie in September 2014

Direct to Disc Recording

One-Point Microphone Setup

Microphones

One pair of Sennheiser MKH 800 Twin in a Blumlein array

Disc cutting lathe: Neumann VMS 80

Produced by Emil Berliner Studios: Rainer Maillard, Maarten de Boer