The accompanying booklet includes a Foreword by Daniel Barenboim, the Staatskapelle’s general music director; an essay examining the century of recordings represented in this set and a comprehensive timeline chronicling the orchestra’s 450-year history, by Detlef Giese, principal dramaturge at the State Opera Unter den Linden.

Contents:

CD 1: Richard Strauss
Mozart - Symphony no.40 in G minor, K550
R Strauss - Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, op.28, TrV171
R Strauss - Don Quixote, op.35
- Georg Kniestedt (violin), Karl Reitz (viola), Enrico Mainardi (cello)

CD 2: Leo Blech
Mozart
Le nozze di Figaro, K492: Overture
Don Giovanni, K527: Overture
Ballet Music from Idomeneo, K367: Chaconne, Gavotte - Passacaille
Maurerische Trauermusik, K477
Symphony no.34 in C, K338

Bizet
Carmen: Prélude (Act 1), Entr’actes (Act 1, 2 & 3)
L’Arlésienne Suite no.2: Farandole

Wagner
Das Rheingold: “Zur Burg führt die Brücke” (Scene 4)
- Fricka: Genia Guszalewicz (soprano)
- Froh: Waldemar Henke (tenor)
- Wotan: Friedrich Schorr (baritone)
Siegfried: Waldweben (Act 2)
Die Walküre: Wotans Abschied (Act 3)
- Wotan: Friedrich Schorr (baritone)

CD 3: Otto Klemperer
Beethoven - Coriolan Overture, op.62
Mendelssohn - Overture A Midsummer Night's Dream, op.21
Brahms - Symphony no.1 in C minor, Op.68
R Strauss - Salome, op.54: Dance of the Seven Veils (Scene 4)
Weill - Kleine Dreigroschenmusik

CD 4: Erich Kleiber
Smetana - Má vlast: 2. Vltava
Dvořák - Symphony no.9 in E minor, op.95 “From the New World”
Beethoven - Symphony no.5 in C minor, op.67

CD 5: Herbert von Karajan
Mozart - Die Zauberflöte, K620: Overture
Verdi - La forza del destino: Overture
Beethoven - Symphony no.7 in A major, op.92
Bruckner - Symphony no.8 in C minor: 4. Finale. Feierlich, nicht schnell

CD 6: Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wagner - Tristan und Isolde: Act 2
- Erna Schlüter (soprano)
- Margarete Klose (alto)
- Ludwig Suthaus (tenor)
- Kurt Rehm (baritone)
- Jaro Prohaska (bass-baritone)
- Gottlob Frick (bass)

CD 7: Joseph Keilberth
Verdi - Macbeth: Act 1 & 2 (sung in German)
- Martha Mödl (soprano)
- Theo Herrmann (tenor)
- Ludwig Buch (bass)
- Josef Metternich (baritone)
- Theo Herrmann (tenor)
- Alfred Hülgert (tenor)
- Hildegard Lüdtke (alto)
- Karl-Heinz Stracke (tenor)
- Friedrich Radtke (bass)
- Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin

CD 8: Franz Konwitschny
Wagner - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Act 1)
- Ruth Keplinger (soprano)
- Anneliese Müller (mezzo-soprano)
- Erich Witte (tenor)
- Gerhard Unger (tenor)
- Heinrich Pflanzl (tenor)
- Theo Adam (bass-baritone)
- Gerhard Niese (baritone)
- Josef Herrmann (baritone)
- Walter Stoll (baritone)
- Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin

CD 9: Sergiu Celibidache
Dvořák - Slavonic Dances, op.46: no.8 in G minor (Presto)
Hindemith - Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber
Brahms - Symphony no.4 in E minor, op.98

CD 10: Otmar Suitner
Mozart - String Quintet no.6 in E flat, K614 (orch. Dessau)
Reger - Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart, op.132
Schubert - Rosamunde, D797: Overture Die Zauberharfe, D644, Entr'acte no.1

CD 11: Pierre Boulez
Mahler - Symphony no.6 in A Minor

CD 12: Michael Gielen
Schubert - Symphony no.8 in B minor, D759 “Unfinished”
Schoenberg - Pelleas und Melisande, op.5

CD 13: Daniel Barenboim
Bruckner - Symphony no.5 in B flat major

CD 14: Zubin Mehta
Beethoven - Piano Concerto no.3 in C minor, op.37
Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto no.1 in B flat minor, op.23
- Daniel Barenboim (piano)

CD 15
Wagner - Der fliegende Holländer: Overture
- Max Schillings

Conti - Languet anima mea: 4. Tu lumentis es
- Kapelle der Staatsoper Berlin
- Max Schillings

Mascagni - Le Maschere: Overture
- Pietro Mascagni

Pfitzner - Palestrina: Prelude to Act I
- Hans Pfitzner

Wagner - Siegfried Idyll, WWV 103
- Karl Muck

Nicolai - Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor: Overture
- Selmar Meyrowitz

Wolf-Ferrari - Il segreto di Susanna: Overture
Reznicek - Donna Diana: Overture
- Robert Heger

Verdi - La traviata: Prelude Act I, Prelude Act III
- Johannes Schüler

Weber - Der Freischütz: Overture
- Paul van Kempen