A unique document of contemporary Dresden history lies safely preserved in the Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv: the recording of the Daphne premiere of 1950, also planned as a tribute “In Memoriam Richard Strauss” for that friend and champion of the Dresden Staatskapelle and Staatsoper, who had died the previous year.

The presence of this buried treasure was ample cause for celebration - until we listened to the recording. We originally considered the surviving Daphne tapes as unfit for release on account of its recording quality and acoustics, far removed from the sound ideal to which we had hitherto aspired.

The restoration of this recording was carried out with ultra-modern digital tools, such as psychoacoustic algorithms to diminish the diffuseness of the stage sound and aid comprehension of the words uttered on stage, but also to embed the unduly direct orchestral sound in a spatial acoustic approximating to that of the audience. Then there was the work of eliminating technical deficiencies like rumbles, crackles and extraneous noise from the orchestra pit, and correcting the entire dynamic profile in an authentic manner. We have, however, deliberately retained the little "plea" from conductor Rudolf Kempe in the closing bars - when he whispered "Eins" (one) to the drifting high strings... Live means live, after all.