Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
This set marks the beginning of Deutsche Grammophon's classic stereo recordings, when the company went from being sonically so-so to the sonic vanguard. Though many of these CDs are familiar, DG's programmers are clever enough to include some incredibly tantalizing tidbits that many collectors must have. Pierre Fournier and Friedrich Gulda probing recordings of Beethoven's Cello Sonatas Op. 69 and 102, No. 2, are filled out by a somewhat labored but still stylish 1971 recording of the Chopin Cello Sonata. Pianist Geza Anda seems sluggish in Mozart's Piano Concerto K. 449, but there's a fine performance of Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze. There are convenient compilation discs devoted to the great singers Rita Streich and Fritz Wunderlich. Even Eugen Jochum's familiar Bruckner Symphony No. 7 is filled out with the same composer's motets, while Mstislav Rostropovich's Schumann Cello Concerto also features a rarely heard, positively yummy Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata. Only discs devoted to Wilhelm Kempff (Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto), Herbert von Karajan (Beethoven Symphonies 3 and 8), Karl Böhm (Strauss tone poems and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante), and Narciso Yepes (Rodrigo and Falla) lack that sexy spin. --David Patrick Stearns

Rating: - Good Years for Classical Music
This set marks the transition of classical recordings into the Stereo age. There is so much material that it is difficult to address it all, but I will do my best! The first disc, 1958, features an all-Mozart program by Rita Streich, including arias from her unmatched performances as Die Königin der Nacht and Blonda, as well as a rarely heard "Aer Tranquillo" from Il Re Pastore. These coloratura arias are delivered with such precision and flute-like high notes that you may doubt parts of them ... Read More