Arthur Nikisch

<!-- please do not add an infobox, per WikiProject Classical music#Biographical_infoboxes-->Arthur Nikisch ; 12 October 185523 January 1922) was a Hungarian conductor who performed internationally, holding posts in Boston, London and - most importantly - Berlin. He was considered an outstanding interpreter of the music of Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Liszt. Johannes Brahms praised Nikisch's performance of his Fourth Symphony as "quite exemplary, it's impossible to hear it any better."

Biography

Arthur Augustinus Adalbertus Nikisch was born in Mosonszentmiklós, Hungary to a Hungarian father, and a mother from Moravia.

Nikisch studied under Felix Otto Dessoff, Johann von Herbeck, and Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr. at the Vienna Conservatory, where he won prizes for composition and performance on violin and piano. However, he was to achieve most of his fame as a conductor. In 1878 he moved to Leipzig and became second conductor of the Leipzig Opera in 1878 and 1882 promoted as principal conductor. He gave the premiere of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in 1884.

On 1 July 1885 Nikisch married Amelie Heussner (1862-1938), a singer and actress, who had been engaged the preceding years at the Kassel court theatre with Gustav Mahler. Their son Mitja (1899-1936) later became a noted pianist.

Nikisch later became conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and from 1893 to 1895 director of the Royal Opera in Budapest. In 1895 he succeeded Carl Reinecke as director...
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