One of my favorites! I actually was going to listen to his Sixth Symphony "Pastoral" in honor of his birthday. Always reminds me of E. G. Robinson in Soylent Green too. ?It's Beethoven's 250th. birthday!
Here's a performance of the final movement of his Ninth Symphony, "The Ode to Joy," with Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra and Westminster Choir, featuring my father's life-long friend, basso Nicola Moscona, with soprano Jarmila Novotna, contralto Kerstin Thorborg, and tenor Jan Peerce.
It was recorded in 1939, at Carnegie Hall.