It’s Beethoven’s 250th birthday year, and concert halls all over the world were going to resound this spring — even more than usual — with his nine epochal symphonies.

But with live performances suspended by the coronavirus pandemic, we classical music critics decided to take matters into our own hands and create our dream cycle, featuring our favorite recording of each symphony with just one rule: No conductor or orchestra could appear more than once.

This is by its nature a debate-provoking endeavor, but (and?) we hope you enjoy it. Please tell us your picks in the comments!