1. The taming and control of Fire.

2. The mastery of Agriculture

3. The code of Hammurabi and codification of Law.

4. The architect Imhotep and the first architecture in stone

5. Aristotle and the birth of democracy

6. The Gutenberg Printing Press and the dissemination of knowledge

7. The US Declaration of Independence and the concept of a government’s responsibility to protect the inalienable rights of all Mankind.

This is such a subjective field. Although the Karajan sets (Karajan recorded the Beethoven complete symphonies more than once) have much to recommend them, I always found that he smoothed off the rough bits of the music (and Beethoven was a revolutionary and could be quite rough at times). Andre Cluytens’ set from the early 1960s (in good stereo, also with the Berlin Phlharmonic) is a good cheap set if you can find it. Some swear by the Zinman set (in a new edition of the scores) on Arte Nova but I find it a bit fiddly and lighweight (and Beethoven was no lightweight!). It’s always fascinating to hear Beethoven on period instruments (replicas of the sorts of instruments Beethoven would have expected to hear 200 years ago) and the sets by John Eliot Gardiner and Roger Norrington are great listening. One of the best sets I have heard recently has been (surprisingly to me, I have to admit) Christoph von Dohnányi’s set with the Cleveland Orchestra – excellently played and with muscular, unfussy performances. It all comes down to taste, though and perhaps you should try a few downloads to see what suits you before shelling out on a bunch of CDs.

Most definitely! I have to agree with you 100 percent! There’s an ethereal aura as to how someone could have possibly conceived such sublimity! The first movement is very stormy and angry. The second movement sounds like it is depicting a battle with soldiers on horseback. The third movement (Beethoven’s greatest adagio ever written) is something indescribable, as it sounds as it was given to humanity by the gods. And the fourth is a majestic and triumphant masterpiece that awes everytime one listen to it. I could rant more about this symphony, but I’ll end it here.

In no particular order:

1. Life

2. The transistor

3. The internet

4. The internal combustion engine

5. The gun

6. DNA manipulation

7. Rachmaninoff’s 2nd piano concerto (in the spirit of the original post)