ABSTRACT
Hungarian conductor, born in Szentmiklós. He studied violin at the Vienna Conservatory; after graduating in 1874 he played in orchestras in Vienna and Leipzig. From 1882 to 1889 he was first conductor at the Leipzig Theater. Appointed to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he served in that post from 1889 to 1893. Then he returned to conduct in Budapest, and to lead the Gewandhaus Concerts in Leipzig. He was a visiting conductor with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. Nikisch was greatly influential in establishing the primary role of the conductor. He died in Leipzig. In the history of recorded sound, Nikisch occupies a significant place as the first great conductor of the first (almost) complete symphony played by a major orchestra. This was the Beethoven Fifth Symphony, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1909, issued on eight single-sided discs by the Gramophone Co. during 1914. These discs (HMV #040784/91) were greatly popular, despite the alterations in the scoring necessitated by acoustic recording limitations, and led to a flow of symphony records from U.K., Germany, and America. (This was not, however, the earliest symphonic recording.) Symposium has issued a set of two compact discs (#1087/8) including all the Nikisch recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic and London Symphony of 1913-1921, in works by Beethoven, Berlioz, Liszt, Mozart, and Weber. [Shawe-Taylor and Hughes 1961.]
See also Orchestra Recordings
American folksong collector, singer, and composer, born in Louisville, Kentucky. He studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and collected folksongs in the Southern Appalachian region. He arranged songs for publication, and also wrote songs in folk style. During the 1930s he was popular as a singer; he made an album for Victor in 1939 titled Early American Ballads. Many singles and albums followed, into the 1960s. In 1965 Victor issued an LP, John Jacob Niles: Folk Balladeer. Niles died on his farm near Lexington, Kentucky.
