Nikisch conducts: FILM 1913 + Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No.1 most authentic transfer

Arthur Nikisch: Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody No.1, 1920 Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
STARTING TIMES: Silent Film 1913: 0:00 VERSION 1: Side 1 0:55 , Side 2 5:13 Side 3 9:10 Side 4 12:29 VERSION 2: Side 1 15:08 Side 2 19:27 Side 3 23:24 Side 4 26:42 INTRODUCTION to Nikisch's recordings and his art of conducting:
Arthur Nikisch was the most famous conductor of his times. Unfortunately there exist only few recordings with him and all are from the acoustic era. Hence, for us Nikisch stands in the shadow of his great successor Wilhelm Furtwängler. But Nikisch was the only conductor Furtwängler really admired. He wrote: "Nikisch vermochte es eben, ein Orchester singen zu machen. Dies... ist etwas höchst Seltenes." ("Nikisch was able to let an orchestra sing. This... is something very rare.")

Nikisch himself admired Richard Wagner, not only as composer, but also as conductor. He played at least two times as violinist under his baton. From Wagner he got the idea of modulation of tempo as a condition for real melos and expression. But the ability to realise this idea in a perfect way came out of Nikisch himself.

Many contemporaries described Nikisch as a magician. So the question for us is: Can we experience these wonderful qualities from the few recordings that were made under primitive conditions about hundred years ago? My answer is: yes, to a large degree. Of course there are losses, but there is enough left for us to experience the essence of his art.

I made every effort to transfer the two shellacs (Grammophon 65906 and 69567) into the digital world. There is no manipulation of sound (equalisation: flat). Hence, the surface noises of the shellacs might be louder than you are used to. But this is the price we have to pay for getting the full sound of the records.(You should not use headphones for this transfer.)
I let the record breaks untouched because they belong to the recording sessions of that time .If you don't like listen with gaps you may click on the indicated starting time of the next side (below the video) when the current side ends.

The two short silent films at the beginning are rare (not on Youtube as far as I know) and illustrate very clearly Nikisch's way of conducting. He moves his arms and hands precisely but at the same time you might feel his magic influence upon the orchestra. There was this interresting comment by Borris Brinkmann: " I know a musicologist who was researching on that. It is known that he recorded some Tchaikovsky movements for video. It's not clear which one. Probably 2nd mvt. of 5th symphony. (He subdivides one beat of the 12/8.)"


A good transfer should be in accordance with these visual impressions and with the statements of the contemporaries about Nikisch. I hope I have settled this task. How difficult it is you can recognize by the fact that I had to offer two versions.
As indicated in the video the first version is best for listening with only a computer. The loudness is still not very high but should be enough in most cases. (IMPORTANT: put the volume of your computer at 100 percent and control volume with the Youtube control at the bottom left.) For this version I had to double the maximum loudness in the film program. This means one more step of computing with the result of less musicality. I did it because many people listen just that way. But if you are seriously interested in Nikisch's subtle art you should connect your computer with a good HiFi system and listen to the second version. Then you will marvel and understand better why Arthur Nikisch was so famous.

Whatever version you choose I recommend to use Google´s Chrome browser.