Wolfgang Sawallisch is known throughout the world as a paragon among his generation of conductors and musicians. After a thorough music education and a firm grounding in the art of conducting he soon began to assume more elevated positions in the music scene. The extent of his success in the 1950s was so great and indeed so rapid that by 1957 he was given the privilege of conducting at Bayreuth, and it comes as no surprise that Birgit Nilsson in her memoires gushes on the topic of the '35-year-old Sawallisch': 'What talent, what a gifted man!' The Orfeo catalogue contains several digital studio recordings of symphonic repertoire by Bruckner, Pfitzner and Weber as well as the Brahms Requiem, which are now released as a tribute to Sawallisch to mark his 95th anniversary year.