Stereo recording of Beethoven's 'Emperor' from 1944

Recorded during an air raid on Berlin in 1944 -  You can hear the sound of German flak guns at times. 

This is transferred from a 2nd generation copy tape, but still, listening on a pair of Sennheiser HD650's  it sounds simply amazing. The machines used were Magnetophone K7 (possibly also an older K4 for one of the reels) and I found this online regarding the microphone set up:


“The recording was made in the main hall here (RRG-building). There were three Neumann CMV-3 omni microphones placed across the front of the orchestra: the left one in front of the high strings, the right one in front of the low strings, the middle one behind the conductor.  The two outside mics were sent to the left and right channels, and the middle mic split between the two channels to create an expansive stereo image.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY7lvuVjjX4

Wow.  All 5 recordings posted there sound great.  Let's hope the missing recordings surface someday. 

Beautiful..

Very interesting indeed. Remarkable quality. I noticed the very low apparent w&f.
Strange perspective (sometimes the piano sounds bigger than the orchestra).
Funny how the violins sometimes sound like percussions.

abbey road d enfer said:

Very interesting indeed. Remarkable quality. I noticed the very low apparent w&f.
Strange perspective (sometimes the piano sounds bigger than the orchestra).
Funny how the violins sometimes sound like percussions.

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Remarkable for sure.  Yes, I wondered about the piano perspective too.  One thought was that the piano was mayebe behind the conductor ? - picked up by the rear side of the mics? 


There are a few more stereo recordings from 1944 on the Youtuber's upload page but, from reading about the story, it seems that there were initially some 250 stereo recordings that were not returned by Russia in the subsequent decades (destroyed or?), although almost 2000 mono recordings eventually were.

P.S.  The flak guns are most prominently heard off to the right at the 5:40 mark.  I've always loved this  piano section  (pp legiermente triplets in Db min. I think?)** and, given what's going on outside, it's all the more poignant. 


**  Edit: been decades since I tried to play this piece and, checking the score, I was wrong.  The theme here has moved up to Eb min., and not triplets.   

Simply incredible.

Cheers

Ian

EmRR said:

Wow.  All 5 recordings posted there sound great.  Let's hope the missing recordings surface someday.

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Right?  I hope someone is still actively trying to liaise between Berlin and Moscow to find out what happened.   
   

that sounded so good and the music is so beautiful.    thanks for sharing that picked up my day

Wishing a belated 250th birthday to Beethoven -  Baptised 17th December 1770.

Hope it was a good one and that he's not too far behind William Shakespeare in getting the Covid-19 vaccine.

Indeed, a great recording and incredible document of time! I'm listening to this right now on my newly built tube headphone amp with Beyer DT990 cans. Fascinating!

Wow, I had no idea tape sounded that good already in the 40s.

The SNR is superb. Usefull information goes to 16k or higher. Often severely out-of-phase, but who listens in mono anyway.

rock soderstrom said:

Indeed, a great recording and incredible document of time! I'm listening to this right now on my newly built tube headphone amp with Beyer DT990 cans. Fascinating!

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Ahh, nice one, enjoy your new h/phone amp 
Have you ever been inside the building there in Berlin? 
I would love to look inside myself.  When things settle down I've thought of trying to arrange a visit with whoever is the curator or manager.  The existing tapes are held there I believe, some 2000 mono and the 5 (?) stereo.

living sounds said:

Wow, I had no idea tape sounded that good already in the 40s.

The SNR is superb. Usefull information goes to 16k or higher. Often severely out-of-phase, but who listens in mono anyway.

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Right?  The issue of recorder fidelity (adding AC bias) had been discovered at AEG by accident a few years prior to this recording and, I think, the improved tape used here was what is known as the "type C" which was the PVC coated in oxide type stuff developed by BASF of IG Farben.

You guys sure know how to make great composers and great recordings 

 

Winston O'Boogie said:

Have you ever been inside the building there in Berlin? 
I would love to look inside myself.

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Hey, I work there, and will happily show you around (once our COVID restrictions allow visitors again).

Sounds more 3D than todays digital hash, I mean recordings, lol.

[silent:arts] said:

Hey, I work there, and will happily show you around (once our COVID restrictions allow visitors again).

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Oh wow!  Well, YES, of course.  Thank you  

It's possible the quote I had above regarding the mics and positions came from you then.  I don't remember the link but it was someone who'd visited and talked to someone familiar with the techniques etc. 

But naturally, after Covid, after vaccinations, after I get whatever visa I'll now need because of stupid Brexit...

I'm sure loads of folks would be interested in what you do there if you feel like chatting about your work.

Cheers, really made my day seeing your reply

Winston O'Boogie said:

It's possible the quote I had above regarding the mics and positions came from you then.  I don't remember the link but it was someone who'd visited and talked to someone familiar with the techniques etc.

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No, that was not me. And there is nobody around really knowing anymore.
In fact there is nothing left from that time, Russia didn't gave the building (or anything inside) back swept clean (no technical documentation too)(see attached pic, taken from the Book "Hans Poelzig - Haus des Rundfunks").
However, I have seen some of those tapes (we call it "Russenbänder"). They are in badest shape I ever have seen a tape can be. Hard to imagine much more rescued recordings to come.

Winston O'Boogie said:

I'm sure loads of folks would be interested in what you do there if you feel like chatting about your work.

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I'm just the service tech in the audio production department.
Saal 1 is still in use, and there are still orchestral recordings taking place there.
Today we use a 72 channel SSL Duality going to Pro Tools and Pyramix.

Winston O'Boogie said:

Have you ever been inside the building there in Berlin? 
I would love to look inside myself.  When things settle down I've thought of trying to arrange a visit with whoever is the curator or manager.  The existing tapes are held there I believe, some 2000 mono and the 5 (?) stereo.

Right?  The issue of recorder fidelity (adding AC bias) had been discovered at AEG by accident a few years prior to this recording and, I think, the improved tape used here was what is known as the "type C" which was the PVC coated in oxide type stuff developed by BASF of IG Farben.

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Yes, I have been there, several times. Concerts are held there to this day. But Silent:Arts Volker knows the location much better.

On the subject of BASF tapes, I did my training as an electronics engineer there, we still produced different types of tapes well into the nineties. I can still smell the raw rollers of the tapes to this day...

Thanks Volker for the interesting Info!

Attached photo shows a guy doing quality management.

Many thanks for the info guys, really fascinating stuff!
I knew that Haus des Rundfunks underwent a major renovation in about 1956 and that there was no equipment left after Russia handed it back, but I didn’t realize it was in such a sad state as the pictures show.
I’ve seen some wonderful images of the internal architecture as it is now as well as pics of the halls/studios and I’m just glad the building survived.  It’s an iconic piece of architecture for sure. 
 
The one thing that gives me hope that there might still be more stereo recordings that surface some day is that, it seems all the experimental stereo recordings were boxed up and sent “for archival purposes only” to Kosten (now in Poland) as Berlin became more war torn after a year of almost constant bombing.    Apparently these stereo tapes were occasionally played as part of rehabilitation for injured soldiers in a medical hospital next to the relocated AEG headquarters there.
Two of the surviving recordings (Bruckner Symphony No. 8, and the  Beethoven Piano Concerto) came back to Haus des Rundfunks through private hands so…

Thanks again fellas