This list is getting expensive. If you are going to shell out for the Bruckner set, you may as well get his complete EMI recordings. All of these recordings are good, and some remain unsurpassed, especially in regards to Sibelius' symphonies - recordings the composer himself praised. An outstanding bargain.

Includes Karajan's first recording of "Also Sprach Zarathustra," the version used in Stanley Kubrick's film, "2001, A Space Odyssey." Also includes Karajan's best recordings of the Tchaikovsky ballet suites, as well as some of his best Mozart and Haydn performances, much lighter and more natural than his later DG remakes.

The Beethoven cycle that started it all. Like it or not, this set defined Beethoven performance practice in such a profound way that everything that came afterward is either a refinement of it, or a reaction to it.

Not my favorite Four Last Songs, but Karajan's Strauss is excellent and worth having.

A clean, precise recording, with almost chamber-like clarity.

Early Schoenberg, played with the rich, full string tone that Romantic works require.

Check Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk, or even directly from DG for better pricing. Wish this was in the Symphony Edition, but it ain't.

Should have been in the Symphony Edition

My new favorite Mahler 9. Karajan actually finds humor and absurdity in the Rondo - Burlesque third movement. Mahler should not always be dry and angst-ridden, even in this, one of his bleaker symphonies. Karajan's Mahler reminds you of Mahler's place in line with Brahms, Bruckner and the other late Romantics. Yes, Mahler was eccentric, but not as eccentric as Bernstein would have you believe.