Usually, when people want to praise the work of a conductor, they say that there was something ‘new’ in his performance of a work. It is to Hermann Abendroth’s credit that this performances of Beethoven’s symphonies did not sound ‘new’, but ‘Beethoven-like’: conducting strictly and thoughtfully, he upheld Beethoven’s own fine traditions, renouncing external effects and penetrating deep into the essence of each work.