Or, When Harry Met Burt….

When Harry Belock set up Everest Records in 1958, his vision was that the label would release high class recordings in the jazz, easy listening and classical fields in a bid to showcase the quality of his Belock Instrument Corporation’s recording machines.

Although, at the time, Belock’s company was heavily involved with the American military’s radar and ballistic missile programmes, Belock himself was an authority on sound and in the thirties had been a sound man in Hollywood. By 1958, he was pioneering multi-channel mixing consoles and was recording on half inch tape and even 35mm film.

To fulfil his vision, a state of the art recording studio was built in Bayside on Long Island, where Westrex was commissioned to build the studios to his exacting high standards and at no small cost. Each mixing desk is reputed to have cost $20,000 (a small fortune at the time) and they were kitted out with Neumann U 47 microphones.

To manage the studios and to create a catalogue of classical recordings, Belock brought in Bert Whyte, a former General Manager of MGM’s subsidiary Perspectasound. Whyte’s wife, Ruth would be his assistant. Together they would put Everest Records on the map, releasing high class stereo LPs and breaking new ground by issuing 7½ i.p.s. stereo reel to reel tapes at the same time. And they did it by contracting some of the best conductors of the day, including Malcom Sargent, Adrian Boult, Josef Krips and Eugène Goossens. Leopold Stokowski was another of the early signings conducting The Stadium Symphony Orchestra of New York (actually The New York Philharmonic ‘moonlighting’ to get around contractual issues).

Whyte recorded many of these classical pieces in the ballroom of The Manhattan Centre in New York and then came to England to record the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra in either Walthamstow Town Hall or Watford Town Hall. These three venues gave Bert Whyte a layout that allowed him to use just three microphones to record the orchestra in complete balance.

Before moving on to RCA Victor’s classical division Red Seal, Whyte created an impressive catalogue of recordings for Harry Belock that stands the test of time and has been sought after by collectors for many years. When he died in 1994, praise for his pioneering work on the popularization of stereo recordings was universal.

Now, some fifty years on, it’s time again to listen to the wonderful legacy that is the Everest Records classical catalogue.

Note:  We have taken great care to re-present these important historical recordings. Due to their age, some sonic shortcomings may be present in some of the recordings which we hope will not appreciably detract from your pleasure in listening to them.