This boxset includes the Beethoven recordings made with the Philharmonia Orchestra between 1951 and 1958: the complete symphonies (with the Nos. 8 and 9 in stereo) - Karajan's most highly regarded cycle - as well as three overtures, some arias with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, the Piano Concertos Nos. 4 and 5 with Swiss pianist Walter Gieseking, and finally the Missa solemnis. "Karajan's 1953 recording of the Seventh Symphony truly is one of the finest performances of the Symphony ever put on disc... his 1954 Pastoral is indeed miraculous." Gramophone