Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 "Pathétique"
Of the four or five recordings that Herbert von Karajan made of this symphony, far and away the best is the one with the Berlin Philharmonic, also on DG and available at a twofer price coupled with the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies. This, his last recording, was made after relations with his Berlin players had gone sour and in the early stages of the digital era--a technology enthusiastically adopted by Karajan, despite the fact that all of his digital recordings sound lousy. Don't fall for the "newer is better" marketing pitch. Karajan was a great Tchaikovsky conductor, but in this case cheapest is also best.--David Hurwitz