Beethoven Symphonies - best perf + sonics on CD

Great Goofyfoot! Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

What a great thread - sorry I came to this party late. I scanned through the comments and offer a Beethoven 4th for consideration: Carlos Kleiber, Bayerisches Staatsorchester on the Orfeo D'Or label (Live Recording) C100841A. As I recall, this CD was not well reviewed when it was issued, but the performance is incandescent and sonics are outstanding. I second a previous suggestions for the best 9th Bohm, VPO, Norman, Fassbaender, Domingo, Berry; best 6th Bruno Walter, Columbia SO; best 5th and 7th Carlos Kleiber on DG. I don't think anyone suggested as a best 3rd from Karajan out of the 1977 cycle. Also, a very enjoyable but dark 4th is Mravinsky, Leningrad Philharmonic Orch, 1973, Melodiya label. Also worth finding is the quirkiest but most exuberant 2nd ever, Bohm VPO that was broadcast live from the Salzburg Festival (1980 or 1981) that I recorded from the radio at the time.

Anyone suggestions for the best Beethoven "Missa Solemnis"? Thanks.

Kmccarty, thanks for the recommendationsI I found the live Kleiber d'Orfeo recording and I'm interested in hearing it but since I just ordered a Sandrine Piau CD, it will have to wait a bit. There's also a DG Original Masters remaster of Kleiber and the Vienna playing Beethoven's 5th and 7th. I typically opt for live recordings however and since d'Orfeo takes their recordings from the original source tapes, they tend to reign on my priority list.
Kleiber is an interesting conductor for me since he is primarily associated with Opera. Louis Langree is the same in this sense and will become full time conductor of the Cincinnati now that Paavo Jarvi has moved to the Rheinland.

To clarify the HIP thing - this stands, as someone else said, for Historically Informed Performance. Technically, this can also refer to a performance on modern instruments, using the increased knowledge that we have thanks to scholarship of the last few decades (things like style, tempi, orchestra size, etc). However, in actual practice, this term is used interchangeably with "period performance." Period performance always implies period instruments. So the two terms should mean something different, but HIP is used in a more narrow sense than it should be.

Kmmcarty

Thanks for your post...interesting to read. I like the Gardiner Missa Solemnis...smaller ensemble (so smaller sound) but articulate reading imho and well recorded.