Beethoven: The Symphonies

Karajan recorded the Complete Symphonies of Beethoven no fewer than four times for Deutsche Grammophon, but this first 1963 recording was financially the most daring, artistically the most radical, and commercially the most successful. By 1973 nearly one million sets had been sold. 50 years on from its original launch, the set remains the best-selling Beethoven cycle of all time. The 1963 Berlin set dazzled like no other, aided in no small measure by the clean, clear, daringly 'lit' recordings made in Berlin's Jesus-Christus-Kirche by the young Günter Hermanns whose debuted on these recordings as Karajan's principal recording engineer. Critics and the record-buying public were enthused above all by the urgency and beauty of the music-making and by the fierce sense of joy which reached its apogee in a thrillingly played and eloquently sung account of the finale of the epic 'Ninth Symphony'.