Back in the 1960s, a complete cycle of the symphonies of
Tchaikovsky meant the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth symphonies. So when
Herbert von Karajan recorded the Fourth and Fifth in 1965 to go along with his Sixth from 1964, everybody figured he'd said all that he had to say on the subject of
Tchaikovsky's symphonies and said it as well as he could ever hope to say it. And despite going on to record all six of
Tchaikovsky's symphonies in the 1970s,
Karajan had actually said all he had to say and said it as well as he could ever hope to say because his 1960s performances still retain the authority of unyielding law. The firmness of
Karajan's 1965 Fourth and the spectacular virtuosity of the
Berlin Philharmonic, the epic reiterations of his 1965 Fifth and his unswerving momentum to the last note of the last movement, the trajectory of his 1964 Sixth from the despair of the opening to the suicide of its close: in all of these things, the
Berlin Philharmonic less performs the music than embodies
Karajan's inflexible will. The original stereo sound of these performances was amazing in its day and Deutsche Grammophon has magnificently re-mastered it.