As Rushton noted, the originals are highly prized by collectors. A fine example of a very simple recording philosophy (3 mikes across the front of an orchestra) superbly executed by a producer with excellent musical taste. The recordings have a lot of the energy you might hear at a live performance (their reproduction of orchestral dynamics was probably the best of the era), but on the whole are on the bright side, as Chadlnliz points out; the first set of SACD reissues actually seemed to tame that brightness just a little, compared to the original CDs. The CDs were remastered under the direction and direct supervision of Wilma Cozart Fine, the original producer of the records, so they had a lot of care taken in their transfer.
Glad to hear from Rushton that the LPs are worth buying, I have held off, as a number of previous re-issues of some Mercury recordings, both on Mercury's budget labels and on the Philips label, have been either disappointing or a mixed bag (not the case, though, with the few Classic Records reissues, wehich are stunning).
