Classical piano solo—Your one favorite performance and recording

Impossible to choose one, but I'll put in a good word for Clifford Curzon's Eroica Variations.

@edcyn 

And, oh yeah -- Chuck Berry invents Rock & Roll.

No, Chuck Berry received a call from his cousin (Marvin?) who was listening to a guitar experience by Marty McFly.

This is well portrayed in the movie Back to the Future.  Get it right.

I remember being surprised when I read a book on Music Appreciation that lumped Beethoven and Schubert together as belonging to the Classical Period but being transitional figures, paving the way for early Romanticism 

There's a rather good movie out there called Eroica, made by Simon Cellan Jones.  As you might suspect, it features among other things a performance of that symphony.  For those just starting out with classical music, it demonstrates very well, I think, the nature of the transition between the Classical and Romantic periods.

There are so many quality box sets which contain performances that deserve to be mentioned here. Many others have touched on these so I'll mention a different source that always has my attention - The Cliburn competition.

Cliburn 2017 Bronze medalist Danial Hsu gave a rendition of Pictures At An Exhibition which has really stuck with me.

Cliburn Masterpiece: Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition