Tchaikovsky the Karajan way

One character that loomed large in my childhood discovery of classical music was the conductor Herbert von Karajan who rather like André Previn during that era were superstars, always recording and performing and promoted by record companies more than most.

During that period I acquired a number of  his Tchaikovsky recordings on record, listened to more thanks to the municipal library and the radio who'd have show playing recordings and even live concerts.
Recently I bought this 8 cd set that has many of his stereo recordings made for DG of Tchaikovsky's works that included a good number from those I owned but what is so good about this set is the six symphonies have a separate disc each to which overtures and other shorter pieces are added rather than being put together that often leads to two of them being split between cds which is a pain.
The 1972 disc of the Sleeping Beauty and Swan lake ballet suites that original came in their memorable silver foil lp jacket are joined by the 1967 Nutcracker Suite that originally coupled with Serenade For Strings as a single cd. 
Talking of which in this set they don't use that Serenade for Strings but the 1981 digital remake which is odd but it's very similar so the only real difference is improved inner detail.
The final disc has Christian Ferras's 1965 account of the violin concerto which is rather sentimental but one I loved at the time and the 'about-face' 1963 Richter performance of the piano concerto which always gave me the impression pianist and conductor were at odds with each other about how to play this piece.
The re-mastering for cd is completely new unlike some previous cd issues in the past with the sound in the 1812 Overture with the Don Cossack choir sung introduction sounding fuller.
While my tastes have moved on, this set is highly enjoyable for the performances and also for bringing back those childhood memories.