- Michele Altieri
OPERATION SORET: the audio of the whole "Rêve de France" symphony by Maurice Soret recovered!
Now we proceed with the scoring of the symphony written in the Stalag B
We are proud to announce that Operation Soret has achieved its first important goal: we saved and mastered the audio of the whole 'Rêve de France' Symphony written by Maurice Soret in Stalag 3B.
As many know, the French conductor and composer Maurice Soret wrote a Symphony in Stalag 3B Fürstenberg an der Oder, the score of this Symphony has been lost; only the recording of the work remains on two Pyral sealing wax discs produced in the last century by Radiodiffusion Française (the Author himself as a conductor).

After a painstaking preparatory work of washing the two discs, stabilizing the original speed of the work (technically slowed down during the transfer phases from the discs to the digital one) and attenuating the hiss through an accurate denoising operation, Tommy Cavalieri - sound engineer and manager of Sorriso Studios in Bari - obtained the complete audio; the result is wonderful, the 'Rêve de France' Symphony is truly a beautiful symphonic page of the 20th century. It's possible to listen to two excerpts (from side 2 of disc 1 and side 2 of disc 2) in the following video.
As many of You remember, the side 2 of second disc had a marked scratch, which would have seriously compromised the final acquisition of the phonographic item; however, thanks to particular expedients and various special needles that were irreparably damaged, the audio of damaged side was almost entirely recovered except for 2-3 seconds of original sound that was lost but can easily be reconstructed in the score.
OPERATION SORET CONTINUES, so we still need your fundamental help.
In the coming months it will be necessary to lay out the phonographic material, which is very complex (material for large orchestra); the ILMC Foundation will have to equip itself with high-quality loudspeakers and listening aids that allow for a detailed reconstruction of the score in every note and tonal nuance.
Some parts of the recovered phonographic material have remained rather disturbed by the rustling, in which case it is necessary to proceed with extreme caution in reconstructing the score; in the last phase, the original phonographic material will undergo a further stabilization of sound pitch and speed, based on the indications which at that point will come directly from the reconstructed score.
We sincerely thank all those who have already contributed financially to support Operation Soret, without their help it would not have been possible to reach this advanced stage; we invite Friends of the ILMC Foundation to give their contribution to bring this wonderful page of musical literature back to life. We will thank everyone.
To send us your support, please make a bank transfer to: Istituto di Letteratura Musicale Concentrazionaria BANK: INTESA SanPaolo BRANCH: 55000 - Fil Accentrata Terzo Settore IBAN: IT94 Y030 6909 6061 0000 0103 682 SWIFT CODE: BCITITMM REASON: Operation Soret
OR you can send a check payable to Istituto di Letteratura Musicale Concentrazionaria Please mail your check to: Istituto di Letteratura Musicale Concentrazionaria Via V. Marone 38/C - 76121 Barletta (BT) - Italy
OR you can use Paypal, please click on this link: https://www.fondazioneilmc.it/en/sostienici REASON: Operation Soret The ILMC Foundation will issue a regular tax receipt
IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS Please email to: info@fondazioneilmc.it you can also call the number or send a whatsapp message to: +39 347 7517282