I’ve long been interested in the quadraphonic LPs of Czech label Supraphon. They were not amongst the very first studios in Europe to jump onto the quad bandwagon but when they did so it was with a commitment and dedication that far outlasted most if not all of the others. I’ve been trying to identify the last ever SQ title they produced. Their actual quad recording sessions seem to have continued until the early eighties, but releases and re-releases went on for much longer.
They also remained much more promotional in the use of quad than their competitors. After a few short years the major companies were down-playing their quad content as a prelude to phasing it out and the quad logos and indicators soon disappeared from their discs and packaging. Supraphon proudly announced their LPs as quad and they all carried the SQ logo long after the others had abandoned the whole thing.
So what was the last Supraphon SQ disc manufactured?
In this regard the collector is well served by Supraphon’s disc labels which very helpfully carry a three digit manufacturing date code. The first two digits are the year and the third digit is either a 1 or a 2 indicating the first or second six months of the year (thus 88 2 would be the second half of 1988).
As far as the evidence of my collection goes, for some time I just assumed it was probably this Smetana opera:
simply as it was in a very ‘modern’ style of packaging and even carries a bar code (!):
It was certainly a late quad era recording according to the booklet:
and the manufacturing code shows that my particular pressing was from the second half of 1989 :
But it was not until recently that I noticed the dates on the discs of another box set, this Honegger oratorio recording:
This was actually a fairly early quad recording session as identified in the booklet:
But the set itself seems to have been re-issued several times and I have one with the date code shown as:
- Yes, that’s the first half of 1990!
Moreover, even in 1990 Supraphon were happily declaring it to be in quad in big letters on the front of the box (when was the last time that any of its competitors had done that?!):
If there was anything later I’d love to hear of it.