The 1979 New Year's Day concert in Vienna proved to be a watershed moment both musically and technically.
It was both the end of an era for Willi Boskovsky, the Wiener Philharmoniker's longstanding concertmaster, and the dawn of a new age in recording technology.
Long fêted as Decca's first digitally recorded release, recent research has unearthed a set of ¼-inch two-track analogue safety masters which have remained undisturbed in Universal Music's vaults for almost half a century.