Colin Davis’s recording of the Grande Messe des morts was made in Westminster Cathedral in 1969 as part of the Philips cycle marking the centenary of Berlioz’s death. That was a major gramophone enterprise, and most of the records hold their place in the catalogue. This one returned on CD in 1986 and has never been dislodged – nor excelled, despite the appearance of some other fine performances. Re-presenting it now, Pentatone describes it as “hybrid multichannel”, with an account in the booklet of what is meant by its “Remastered Quadro Recordings”. These are based on multichannel recordings (with which Philips was experimenting in the 1970s), some of which were issued in the short-lived quadraphonic format.

The Requiem is a prime case for such treatment, with the four brass bands of Judgement Day challenging and answering in the Dies irae, as Donne put it, “at the round earth’s imagin’d corners”. However, Berlioz never intended to surround the audience “quadraphonically” but to create a depth and spaciousness of sound to fill a great building. No recording can do that but the illusion is created here with a sense of separation between the bands. At the other extreme of effect, there are those notorious soft flute/trombone chords in the “Hostias”. These sound accurate and pure, as if the flutes were overtones of the deep, sonorous trombones.

Such effects are, of course, only part of the work, but they are a vital one. The 1986 Phillips CD also includes the Te Deum, together with excellent essays by Hugh Macdonald and David Cairns; the new Requiem note is briefer and slighter.