In 2008, Challenge Classics released a very popular, limited edition of The Original Recordings 1950-1960 of the legendary Dutch conductor Willem van Otterloo with The Hague Philharmonic.

This eagerly anticipated new seven-CD set presents a broader perspective, and features four renowned orchestras with which he conducted and recorded, including the Royal Concertgebouw, the Vienna Symphony, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Hague Philharmonic.

Willem Van Otterloo (1907-1978) was born in Winterswijk, Gelderland, in the Netherlands. While playing as a cellist in the Utrecht Stedelijk Orkest, he won a composition prize from the Concertgebouw Orchestra for his Suite No.3, which he presented in his 1932 conducting debut. He held posts with the Utrecht Stedelijk Orkest, before being appointed chief conductor of the Residentie Orkest in The Hague (1949-1973).

Contents:
CD 1:
- Smetana: The Bartered Bride - Overture
- Smetana: The Bartered Bride - Polka, Fyriant Dance of the Comedians
- Franck: Les Eolides
- Franck: Symphony in D Major

CD 2:
- Beethoven: Symphony No.5 in C, Op.67
- Beethoven: Fidelio Overture
- Schubert: Symphony No.5 in B flat D 485
- Brahms: Akademische Festouvertüre Op.80

CD 3:
- Bruckner: Symphony No.7 in E

CD 4:
- Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
- Saint-Saëns: Symphony No.3 in C, Op.78
- Rachmaninov: Concerto for piano and orchestra No.1 in F sharp, Op.1

CD 5:
- Rachmaninov: Concerto for piano and orchestra No.2 in C, Op.18
- Franck: Psyché -  Le sommeil de Psyché / Psyché enlevée pas les Zephirs / Les jardin d'Eros / Psyché et Eros / Le Châtiment

CD 6:
- Beethoven: Symphony No.6 in F, Op. 68 'Pastoral'
- Beethoven: Concerto for piano an orchestra No.3 in C, Op.37

CD 7:
- Beethoven: Turkish March Op.113
- Beethoven: Violin Romance No.1 G, Op.40
- Beethoven: Violin Romance No.2 in F, Op.50
- Schubert: Overture Rosamunde D 644
- Berlioz: Rákoczy March
- Weber: Symphony No.2 in C
- Meyerbeer: Coronation March from 'Le Prophete'
- Weber: Overture der Freischütz
- Grieg: Two Elegiac Melodies Op.34 for string orchestra Heart Wounds Last Spring
- Prokofiev: March Op.33 bis