As the informative CD booklet notes, in the early 1970s, Philips Classics became aware of the multi-channel music reproduction system, in which four channels record the music to achieve clearer, more natural and more immediate sound. So-called quadraphonic recording did not progress far, as it became clear that home gramophone systems of the time were not sophisticated enough to reproduce the sound. Now, however, the presence of the multi-channel Super Audio CD means that the original Philips recordings can be released as they were originally intended.

On this disc, the sound is fresh, clear and bright, with intricate detail and great depth to the orchestral timbre. The original engineers evidently spent much time in arranging microphones to achieve the best results, and consequently the woodwind and strings mix homogenously, the brass are individually coloured. The hedonistic vitality of Haitink's performances is captured and transmitted superbly through Pentatone's expert remastering job.

The two suites from Daphnis et Chloé open the disc. The Nocturne whets the appetite, with luxurious strings, topping harps and seductive flecks of woodwind colour. A shimmering sensuality pervades Haitink's interpretation, and even the whooshing wind effects seem sincere, delicately balanced and carefully placed. The Interlude's orgasmic brass cries are tremendously effective, rudely interrupting the movement's firmly stated, almost didactic quality, and the move to the Danse guerrière is exhilarating and momentous, the latter movement's grotesque switches of tempo and huge, militaristic thumpings shattering on this recording. The trend continues in the second suite, with the famous Lever du jour predictably breathtaking, the swirling mists giving way to majestic beams of violin light, the luminous orchestral timbre almost obscenely onomatopoeic.

The performance of Ma mere l'oye possibly ups the thrill a further notch. Tom Thumb (Petit Poucet) takes a particularly fantastical journey, the Concertgebouw's famed woodwind cuckooing and screeching, the evocation of the forest exotic and bewitching. Or listen to Laideronnette, Impératrice des Pagodes, with its momentous gong growls and clanking pentatonic harmonies, designated a wide dynamic, dramatic and expressive range. The chiming of the work's final brassy climax is noble and warm, a tantalizingly beautiful ending to a superb performance.

Why, at the end of the disc, we need to hear Edo de Waart conducting Ravel's Bolero with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra is beyond me, for this orchestra and conductor do not approach Haitink and the Concertgebouw in terms of structural and sonic majesty. The performance trots by pleasingly but does not register on the Richter Scale until its final moments, the orchestral sound detailed but comparatively undernourished. It's a fine performance, but the effect here is of bathos: buy this recording for Bernard Haitink alone.

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