Decca has announced more classical music reissues as part of its Pure Analogue vinyl series, which are now available for purchase. The latest selection of Decca Pure Analogue titles includes:
Los Angeles Philharmonic / Zubin Mehta – VARÈSE: Arcana; Intégrales; Ionisation LP
This release coincides with the 90th birthday of Zubin Mehta, an Indian conductor of Western classical music. His 1971 album of orchestral works by French-American composer Edgar Varèse, alongside the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was originally praised by Gramophone for its “virtuoso playing” and “exemplary recording.”
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / Sir Georg Solti – Richard Strauss: An Alpine Symphony (Eine Alpensinfonie) LP
Sir Georg Solti, the late Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, made this record in 1979 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. It marked one of the last Decca analogue productions before the switch to digital. Solti personally knew Richard Strauss and studied the German composer’s own recording before taping this performance in Munich.
San Francisco Symphony / Seiji Ozawa – DVOŘÁK: Symphony 9 ‘New World’ LP
Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa was internationally revered for his work as music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and, notably, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he played for 29 years. He arrived as music director of the San Francisco Symphony in 1970, and was later described by Barack Obama: “with his mop haircut, and his turtlenecks, and his love beads, he almost looked like a Beatle.” This May 1975 recording of Dvořák’s New World Symphony was one of the last to be made quadraphonically by Philips and specially remixed for this reissue.
Concertgebouworkest / Bernard Haitink – MAHLER: Symphony 5; Adagio from 10 2LP
This set of the 5th Symphony and Adagio from the 10th comes from the analogue cycle Bernard Haitink’s Gustav Mahler made in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which has long been a staple of the Philips catalogue. This 1970 recording was made quadraphonically in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and was praised by Gramophone for having “that special clarity which comes from a close balance.”
The Decca Pure Analogue Series features the most iconic recordings from the Decca & Philips archives. All of the limited-edition deluxe gatefold releases are mastered by Rainer Maillard and cut by Sidney C. Meyer at the renowned Emil Berliner Studios in Berlin, and are pressed on 180g vinyl. Each release includes bespoke notes by Dominic Fyfe, Decca Classics’ A&R director, detailing the history of the recording, the technical background and the mastering process.
