Karajan is a great master, wrote Jean Sibelius in 1955, while the conductor said that Sibelius is a composer who cannot really be compared to anyone else. Gramophone added in 1981: No living conductor has done more for the music of Sibelius than Herbert von Karajan. In the tone poems and the two symphonies in this collection, Karajan explores with the magnificent Berlin Philharmonic the musics mysteries, unfolds its structures and releases its exhilarating power.