Symphony 5th - best recording

Now that we know for sure, I'm going to second Rustons recommendation. FWIW the performance is so outstanding that if you like this symphony you won't care about whether its the best 'audio' version. It is propulsive, grabs your in those first notes and never lets the tension relax. This is one of the few performances of anything that I feel might actually be definitive! :-)

Of course, Beethvoven! I don't have a favorite recording of it to recommend, but you might also might want to try the 6th for him--it's in Fantasia after all! Plus it has a story line that goes with it (that you could embellish). Anyway, good luck.

eugene ormandy-beethoven's 5th and 6th-sony cd. superb

I was kind of doubting they would play the 5th by Mahler or Shostakovich on the kids show.....even though little Einsteins, but still......

I have Beethoven's 5th, conducted by Karajan on DG that is a very good performance and a good recording.

Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner (Archiv Produktion). Positively the most historically accurate and exciting performances of all nine Beethoven Symphonies. The small orchestra performs Beethoven with a clarity unobtainable with a large modern orchestra. You'll hear parts and details you never knew were in the score. The dynamics are spectacular. The balance between classical and romantic stylistic interpretation is perfectly suited to the transitional time period of the music. And the recording quality is excellent.

But, of course, if you're used to the bloated sound of von Karajan's interpretation, or the overly romantic interpretation of Bernstein's, then you'll completely disagree.