Careful! It’s a trick question, and not for the reason you might think. In 1980, the compact disc was actually standardized at 74 minutes to accommodate the length of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony – specifically using Wilhelm Furtwängler’s 1951 Bayreuth Festival performance as a template. No orchestra in the world would be able to get through it in 40 minutes – not even conducted by Charles Munch, as in this astonishing recording:
Yet one more way, albeit it unintended on the part of the composer, in which Beethoven caused the world to hear music differently.
Hey, teacher! Leave them kids alone!