Loydelee, I like the Paavo Jarvi cycle but I am biased because I saw him for ten seasons with our orchestra in Cincinnati. Nevertheless, his interpretations make sense, for example the opening four note motive of the 5th is taken with enthusiasm versus the sometimes slower approach. Dynamics especially stand out in this cycle as being well thought out in advance. The small size of the Bremen orchestra allows one to hear its quality players more closely. The recordings are very good to excellent. The room sounds open and tends to recede towards the tympani.
OK, so how does this compare with Karajan or Furtwängler? It has been some time since I've heard the Karajan but my instincts tell me that the Jarvi is less idiosyncratic and more focused on driving home the point so to speak. I certainly haven't heard enough Furtwängler recordings but he's such a towering iconic figure that I see him in some way as being a linked to Brahms and Beethoven themselves. The Furtwängler that I own is the d'Orfeo box set of the Berlin at the Salzburg Festival which is wonderful. However, I cannot make a fair comparison between the two at this point.
The only symphony which I found questionable to my liking in the Jarvi cycle would be the 9th. It isn't bad, it's just out of the ordinary. I once owned the Harnoncourt box set when it first came out in the 90's and found it beautiful in some ways but perceived the historical brass being combined with all modern instruments to sound out of place. There were also areas of the Harnoncourt that sounded a little 'run through'. If I were to recommend a modern recording of the Beethoven cycle, it would be the one from Paavo Jarvi.
Lastly, the now defunct Andante label issued some wonderful remasteres of Beethoven. The one that comes to mind is the LSO Salzburg set with Karl Böhm conducting the Beethoven 7th live.
