Investigation

Composers have long enjoyed creating echo and spatial effects in their music – Britten's War Requiem and Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta are just two obvious 20th century examples.

But well before quadraphonic LPs or multichannel SACDs, in Dec '59 Decca recorded Mozart's Notturno for four orchestras at Kingsway Hall. Erik Smith was the producer and Kenneth Wilkinson his engineer. Speakers Corner has this recording [SXL2196] on 180g vinyl. Though two-channel, the performance by the LSO under Peter Maag offers good separational effects.