Danny Tan wrote:

>I understand that these are historic recordings.

Since some of those conductors have been dead for between thirty and forty
years, you understand correctly.

>Anyone has any comments about these performances?

The Boult Shostakovich are certainly worthwhile.

>I bought these at "above" full prices.  Because I was told that they are
>audiophile discs utilising super bit mapping technology and thus is 20
>bits instead of the usual 16 bits in CDs.

Can you tell the difference? I can't.  In fact, the technology you mention
is used for mastering the originals to CD.  In fact these were analogue
recordings.  SBM is pretty commonplace now.

>I was even told that the word "PROMOTIONAL" splashed across the CDs means
>that these discs are the first few off the mould and has the best sound
>quality!

Goodness knows I'm no expert, but surely since a CD's information is
digital the ten millionth CD of the machine will be absolutely identical
in quality to the first.  This was one of the USPs of CDs when they first
came in.

>But I saw some list members mentioning about getting some Beethoven's
>complete works at "promotional" prices.  Does this mean that such discs
>are sold at discount or "even given free!" in the US?

There are other nationalities here than American.

>The sound quality of these discs I had is certainly noticeably much better
>than the normal CDs.  If anyone has an Everest CD, hope that you can give
>some infomation about this record label.Thanks.

The original Everest label dates back to the late1950s and early 1960s
where the above recordings originate.  They were recorded on 35mm film
rather than normal audio tape and used three channels for their stereo
image taken from three microphones only.  They were considered to be
audiophile - *in their day*.  Subsequent LP re-issues tended to be of less
good quality and it's only now with CD that they have returned to the
original films to get at the best sound and used the latest mastering
technology.

Here in the UK they tend to sell at medium price, sometimes less.  If you
were charged full price, or even higher, I think you were unfortunate.
Purchaser beware.

Tony Duggan, England.
Mahler recordings survey:
http://www.musicweb.force9.co.uk/music/Mahler/