The first two movements of Karajan's 1962 Pastoral were generally acounted the least successful in the whole of that distinguished cycle, a severe disappointment after the glorious Philharmonic performance of the early 1950s. The performance still sounds impatient and uncaring, something reinforced by the omission of the first exposition repeat. Nor do the slightly recessed sound or the evidently pre-Dolby tape surfaces make for especially satisfactory listening. The account of the Fifth Symphony is very fine and here the surface noise is less obtrusive, but the coupling is ultimately unsatisfactory, even at mid price. Karajan's latest Berlin recordings of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies (DG 413 9322GH 1/85) are to be preferred musically and technically and collectors who don't mind dated sound might well care to investigate the glorious Concertgebouw/Erich Kleiber performances which Decca recently reissued ( 417 637-2DH, 9/87).'