ABC# - The Role of the Conductor Part 6

Yesterday, I recalled a rehearsal in London when a discomfited Wagner was replaced by Hans Richter, one of his most devoted and esteemed acolytes. Hungarian born, in 1843, he had no apparent ambitions to be a composer, rather like the Austro-Hungarian Arthur Nikisch, born in 1855. Both were part of the Wagner tradition with Hermann Levin, Felix Mottl, and the most powerful of Wagner`s followers - Hans von Bulow. Nikisch has left us some recordings which give us an iidea of both his talents and his heritage. For some, he was marked by the inartistic excesses that Bulow was given to. Everybody admitted however, that he had wonderful control of an orchestra and could create magic.

When Bulow died in 1894 Nikisch succeeded him as conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. His rivals for the position included Felix von Weingartner, then aged 32, and Richard Strauss, Bulow's own favourite, aged 31. Nikisch, 40 years old at the the height of his considerable powers, was possessed by amazing charisma. Wagner was his god, and he had been inspired by Wagner's conducting to adopt that career,having been a fine violinist. Here's a sample of his style - and I used that terminology advisedly - his style, - because he in many ways epitomized the role of the 'star'conductor, bending the composition to suit his wishes, rather than the composers'. This is the opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, replete with over-long pauses, unwanted accelerandi, wilfully varying tempo.
Music

When that performance was given by him, with the Berlin Philharmonic, Adrian Boult, a quiet admirer of Nikisch in many ways, wrote: "I would almost go so far as to say that there were few works that I would not have felt could have been better given by other conductors, in spite of the marvellous fascination of Nikisch's art. " Richard Strauss, fabulously gifted as a conductor, changed his style from his early exuberance to become one of the quietest conductors on the podium. Among his witty dictat to young conductors is" You should not perspire when conducting, only the audience should get warm " . Here he is , with the Berlin State Opera orchestra, in a section of his own Tone Poem, " Don Juan", recorded in 1929.

Finally today, a sample of Karl Muck`s conducting. Born in 1859, five years before Strauss, he decided to become a conductor while in his early 20s. Inspired also by Wagner, he became a regular conductor at Bayreuth, and appeared in each season, from 1901 to 1930, conducting his personal favourite among Wagner's operas 'Parsifal'. Here is an extract from the Transformation Scene in Act I. Notice the sonorous bells at about 75" into this excerpt - they were constructed to Wagner's specification for 'Parsifal' They were later damaged beyond repair. This recording dates from 1927.