Claudio Abbado. Herbert von Karajan. Wilhelm Furtwängler. You are weighed upon golden scales, if you are the chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. And for good or ill, the balance tilts hardest in what is still thought of as classical music’s core repertoire: Mahler, nowadays; Brahms, naturally; Beethoven, forever.

To many ears, Simon Rattle has rarely been the most natural conductor of that music. Since he took charge at the Philharmonic in 2002, he has successfully broadened the idea of what his orchestra should play, from early music to contemporary commissions. Yet from Tuesday to Saturday, over five largely sold-out nights at Carnegie Hall, he and his orchestra presented nothing more innovative than a Beethoven cycle — a strong, often breathtaking, ultimately frustrating one at that.

A Beethoven cycle? Again?

Yes, a Beethoven cycle, a mere 1,017 days after the last one at Carnegie ended with an incandescent Ninth from Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. These cycles serve multiple purposes: They are an entry point for new listeners, a summation for experienced hands, often a promotional tour for recordings, and usually a target for critics. (I, along with what the hall estimated as 300 to 400 other patrons, heard all five concerts.) Just as Beethoven’s Nine elevated the symphony into what one contemporary called “the highest genre of instrumental music,” performing them all, together and intensively, has always held a special allure. The cycle has become a summit to be mounted over and over and over again.

Image Simon Rattle, conducting the Berlin Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall last week, Credit... Tina Fineberg for The New York Times

Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra made the first ascent in 1825-26. If that was a radical departure in concert culture, its successors no longer are. The list of conductors who have led complete (or near-complete) cycles at Carnegie Hall is forbiddingly lofty: Damrosch, Mahler, Toscanini, Walter, Wallenstein, Masur, Abbado, Harnoncourt and Barenboim. Mr. Rattle’s cycle was at least the 16th heard at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 57th Street since 1908. The head says that our musical life is too firmly rooted in events like these, but the heart demands they be heard.