Tut, tut Vic! You know you shouldn't wind up Dr B when he's stroking his (subsidised) mangel wurzels.
Turning back to Beethoven, and in answer to the original thought-provoking (if well-nigh impossible to answer) question, if forced to pick a desert island Beethoven work, I'd plump for the 5th Symphony performed without repeats. Not that I have any objection to the repeats being observed, and have many great performances that do so, but in its shorter, tauter, form it has a compulsive inevitability and urgency that I find irresistible.
Tut, tut Vic! You know you shouldn't wind up Dr B when he's stroking his (subsidised) mangel wurzels.
Turning back to Beethoven, and in answer to the original thought-provoking (if well-nigh impossible to answer) question, if forced to pick a desert island Beethoven work, I'd plump for the 5th Symphony performed without repeats. Not that I have any objection to the repeats being observed, and have many great performances that do so, but in its shorter, tauter, form it has a compulsive inevitability and urgency that I find irresistible.
JKH