Everest Records is back!

[Brian]

http://evereststereo.com/

Most are available as downloads, some as CDs.

[Holden]

I've got the Krips/LvB on the older Everest label issues from about the early 2000s and I remember with some fondness that Bolet/Chopin recital though it was via World Record Club.

[Todd]

I bought some as closeouts from BRO years ago, and the ones I got that I remember weren't really that great (eg, Stokowski's Bartok, Goosens' Stravinsky), and then there are the ones I don't remember.  I've sold all I bought.  That written, the early Bolet recordings and the Krips LvB pique my interest and I never did buy those.

[vandermolen]

They were back again a few years ago. I bought the great CD of Copland conducting his Third Symphony. The greatest performance I have heard + Boult's version of Vaughan Williams's 'Job'.

[jochanaan]

On the other hand, Everest was responsible for some of the worst recordings I've ever heard.  The Krips/Beethoven cycle was played well enough but I never liked the recording quality; and some of their others were downright trashy as far as recorded sound!  Are they any better now?

[Karl Henning]

Goossens' Stravinsky may just be the scariest phrase I've read in 2014.

[Ken B]

Goossens' Stravinsky may just be the scariest phrase I've read in 2014.

Goossen's Menin Eigth

Glad I could help.

[Holden]

On the other hand, Everest was responsible for some of the worst recordings I've ever heard.  The Krips/Beethoven cycle was played well enough but I never liked the recording quality; and some of their others were downright trashy as far as recorded sound!  Are they any better now?

Krips' Choral symphony was the first version on CD that I found acceptable to listen to (I had the Cluytens on LP but the CD wasn't available at that time). It's an MOR recording, well sung and played. I"ve since found far better but it won't disappoint anyone coming to this work for the first time

[AnthonyAthletic]

Cracked the seal on this cd which arrived yesterday.  I don't know if it's just plain faulty or it's an mp3 rip to CD-R dressed up as a genuine CD-R?

[asin]B001885C3S[/asin]

Basically to name two, track 1 doesn't flow into track 2 but stops, hits a blank spot and restarts.  So does track 7 to 8.  Both of these should be continuous music but it does appear like its a ripped mp3 to CD-R causing the sound cut outs, and not a master tape to cd.

Don't they realise you can't put mp3 to cd if it's a split movement when the track ticks over.

Anyone else got this, same problem or just this batch?  The Everest Mahler 5 with Schwarz was full of glitches too.

[Ken B]

Cracked the seal on this cd which arrived yesterday.  I don't know if it's just plain faulty or it's an mp3 rip to CD-R dressed up as a genuine CD-R?

[asin]B001885C3S[/asin]

Basically to name two, track 1 doesn't flow into track 2 but stops, hits a blank spot and restarts.  So does track 7 to 8.  Both of these should be continuous music but it does appear like its a ripped mp3 to CD-R causing the sound cut outs, and not a master tape to cd.

Don't they realise you can't put mp3 to cd if it's a split movement when the track ticks over.

Anyone else got this, same problem or just this batch?  The Everest Mahler 5 with Schwarz was full of glitches too.

Thanks for the warning. And it's not even a budget label.

[7/4]

I have my Dad's vinyl, I think there's a couple of Everest albums in there. 

[vandermolen]

Cracked the seal on this cd which arrived yesterday.  I don't know if it's just plain faulty or it's an mp3 rip to CD-R dressed up as a genuine CD-R?

[asin]B001885C3S[/asin]

Basically to name two, track 1 doesn't flow into track 2 but stops, hits a blank spot and restarts.  So does track 7 to 8.  Both of these should be continuous music but it does appear like its a ripped mp3 to CD-R causing the sound cut outs, and not a master tape to cd.

Don't they realise you can't put mp3 to cd if it's a split movement when the track ticks over.

Anyone else got this, same problem or just this batch?  The Everest Mahler 5 with Schwarz was full of glitches too.

Anthony - I had the same trouble with the same CD some years ago when Everest reappeared in the UK. I wrote to the distributors. There was a fault with the batch. What you need is the Everest CD (same cover) where only one track is allocated to 'Job'. This played fine. The fault is on the multiple track version.  They should replace it for you.

[Daverz]

On the other hand, Everest was responsible for some of the worst recordings I've ever heard.  The Krips/Beethoven cycle was played well enough but I never liked the recording quality; and some of their others were downright trashy as far as recorded sound!  Are they any better now?

Once the founder left, things went downhill quickly.  From wikipedia:

Collectors have determined that the only Everest LPs worth having are those that were recorded and pressed while Belock was at the company.[citation needed] Identifying these records is relatively easy: the first issues sport a silver/turquoise label (with the earliest of these having a wood dowel on the outside edge of the inner sleeve). The silver paper used on these covers usually becomes brittle and deteriorates with age. The second label is a purple mountain. The entire classical catalog of Belock Everests is relatively small, fewer than 100 LPs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everest_Records

[jochanaan]

Once the founder left, things went downhill quickly...

That explains much.  I have one of those old Everest LPs (of the Bartok Dance Suite and a Kodaly piece--Hary Janos?) and it's a good recording and pressing.  But there was a complete (more or less!) Tchaikovsky symphony cycle put out by Everest, with various conductors and orchestras, that was just awful, not worth the cost of the vinyl!

[bhodges]

This record below - Respighi's Pines of Rome and Fountains of Rome, with Sir Malcolm Sargent and the LSO - was the first recording I ever owned, a gift from my violin teacher after I heard the Dallas Symphony Orchestra play Pines. I recall the sound being excellent, but who knows, since...well, it was my first recording! Maybe I just liked it because it was LOUD.  

In any case, I haven't heard it in years, in any format, so I'll probably get it, just to revisit.

[asin]B00EB1QU58[/asin]

--Bruce

[Cato]

To be sure, Everest did not always offer the peak in sound quality or performance.  The records were cheap, however!

One LP sticks in my mind: Mahler's Ninth Symphony conducted by Leopold Ludwig.

[asin]B00EB1QXE6[/asin]

[vandermolen]

I am pleased with the two I recently purchased. Copland Symphony 3, possibly the best recorded performance and Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 9 complete with Sir Adrian Boult's announcement that the composer, who had been due to be at the recording session had died just a few hours earlier and how pleased he was that VW's new Symphony would be now heard by 'our American friends'. Interesting that it was an American company who scheduled the premiere recording, perhaps an indication of growing indifference to VW's music in Britain - a situation only remedied at the time of the centenary celebrations in 1972, since which time his star has ascended again.

The problem with these new releases, which are well documented and presented is the very short playing time (c 35 minutes in the case of Vaughan Williams). Earlier Everest issues had couplings like Billy the Kid for Copland and Malcolm Arnold's Symphony No. 3 for Vaughan Williams. However, I like the fact that the latest releases feature the original cover art.

[jochanaan]

...The problem with these new releases, which are well documented and presented is the very short playing time (c 35 minutes in the case of Vaughan Williams)...

Cuts?  Unbearably fast tempos (although that seems unlikely with Sir Boult conducting)?  Incomplete recording?

[vandermolen]

Cuts?  Unbearably fast tempos (although that seems unlikely with Sir Boult conducting)?  Incomplete recording?

Just lack of other music on the CD I think. The VW usually only lasts about 35 minutes.

[jochanaan]

Just lack of other music on the CD I think. The VW usually only lasts about 35 minutes.

Oh well, in that case, no problem!