Why Beethoven again and why now?

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Beethoven is a house-hold name, almost a common noun.  Boys and girls around the world learn to tinkle away Für Elise at family dinner parties, and even the most musically ignorant immediately recognizes "da da da, da---".  The music of Beethoven has never ceased to fascinate us, but also it can easily become a boring expression of cliché and chores.  Is it because his music has been perhaps the most exposed in the last 200 years and more, and therefore taken for granted?  Even if it is so, there is still a certain grain of truth in why generations of people in every corner of the globe continue to seek refuge and experience catharsis in and through the music of Beethoven.  

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Countless conductors of the past and the present have already performed and recorded all nine symphonies of Beethoven with orchestras of various calibre and nationality.  Recordings by Wilhelm Fürtwängler and Arturo Toscanini in each of their own parallel universes, offer a glimpse of their great minds and understading of the symphonies.  Carlos Kleiber's recordings, especially those of the 5th and the 7th symphonies, are regarded as the milestones of its kind.  However, I find myself going back and again to his father, Erich Kleiber's recordings, especially that of the 3rd symphony.  Other canonical recordings include John Eliot Gardiner and his orchestre révolutionnaire et romantique, and Claudio Abbado/Herbert von Karajan with Berliner Philharmoniker.  Most recently, Gustavo Dudamel and Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, have produced recordings, especially those of the 5th and the 7th, with refreshingly youthful energy.  Most notable is Seoul Philharmonic under the baton of Myung-Whun Chung for their mature and spirited performance.

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Even after generations and generations of concerts and recordings, the scores of the Beethoven symphonies continue to provide questions upon questions. Why?

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• forte, piu forte, fortissimo 

• fp (forte followed by immediate piano?  or forte followed by diminuendo towards piano), sf (sforzando ... is it forte piano subito, or an accent within the context?), rf (rinforzando as in sforzando with rubato quality with structural importance).  Some argue that the concept of forte, followed by immediate piano, did not exist back then.  Mannheim orchestra was renowned particularly for their thunderous crescendo and breath-taking diminuendo.  

• What does allegro mean?   What does andante mean?   What do they all mean for different composers?

• What is minuet?  What is scherzo?  The scherzo of the fifth symphony is not a scherzo because there is no development.  But its first movement is written like a scherzo.  

• The fourth bar in the fifth symphony does not exist in the manuscript. 

• The meaning of staccato - staccato as in tenuto

• the length of each fermata 

• the length of pause between the movements within a symphony

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And regarding performance practice issues:

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• period instruments? 

• vibrato?  how much vibrato?  speed and size of vibrato?  

• doubling the wind/brass sections?

• orchestra seating