I found this an enormously exciting performance of The Planets ... Karajan gives an absolutely splendid performance, breathing new life into the music ... and it is just so welcome to see how finely this music comes up in the hands of a ... different conductor of such gifts ... this is a performance to be heard ... Karajan has brought a new excitement to this music ... I do hope he is playing it to his audiences in Vienna

With Karajan at his peak, his extraordinarily magnetic and powerful (1961) Decca recording of The Planets is still uniquely individual, bringing rare tension, an extra magnetism, projected by superb Decca recording.