Hermann Abendroth

Hermann Paul Maximilian Abendroth was a German conductor and educator born on January 19, 1883, in Frankfurt am Main. He received musical training at the Königliche Akademie der Tonkunst in Munich under Ludwig Thuille, Anna Hirzel-Langenhan, and Felix Mottl. Abendroth served as Musikdirektor in Lübeck from 1905 and in Essen from 1911 to 1914. In 1915, he became the chief conductor of the Gürzenich-Orchesters in Cologne, where he was appointed Generalmusikdirektor in 1918. He later served as the Gewandhauskapellmeister in Leipzig from 1934 until 1945. After World War II, Abendroth led the Staatskapelle Weimar beginning in 1945 and took over the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester in Leipzig in 1949 and Berlin in 1953. He was recognized for his interpretations of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, and Mozart. Abendroth died on May 29, 1956, in Jena. Posthumous releases include the 2010 recordings Ludwig van Beethoven: Sinfonie Nr. 9 and Ludwig van Beethoven: Klavierkonzert Nr. 4 / Peter Tschaikowski: Klavierkonzert Nr. 1.