5 CD + 1 Blu-ray Audio

CDs 1 – 5: Symphonies nos. 1 – 9 on 5 CDs, remastered at 24 bit / 96 kHz (an update on the SACD version of 2003)

1 Blu-ray Audio (Disc 6) comprises ALL 9 SYMPHONIES plus the rehearsal of the Ninth Symphony

An ultramodern 24 bit / 96 kHz remastering of this classic set delivered ‘twice complete’ – once across 5CDs, and once on a single Blu-ray Audio with the rehearsal of the Ninth Symphony. Presentation is a unique deluxe package full of nostalgic touches and rare Karajan photos.

Karajan recorded the Complete Symphonies of Beethoven no fewer than 4 times for DG, 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 and 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 debut as Karajan’s principal recording engineer this was.

Critics and the record-buying public were enthused above all by the urgency and beauty of the music-making and by a fierce sense of joy which reached its apogee in a thrillingly played and eloquently sung account of the finale of the epic Ninth Symphony.

Hardback slipcase featuring original cover art.

36-page hardback book with 6 suspended wallets.

New article by Karajan biographer Richard Osborne on the famous cycle.

Facsimile of many elements of the original LP release (original booklet cover, Beethoven portrait, decorative elements, Beethoven autograph, letter from Karajan to DG’s Head of A&R Elsa Schiller – offered in translation, original recording schedules, original individual LP cover releases).

Photographs including scenes from the recording studio, the sequence of photos including the famous cover image used in the individual LP releases.