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LTM - Touristic offers in Leipzig

Nikischplatz, Nikischstele / Nikischplatz, Nikisch Column (Music Trip station 13)

Arthur Nikisch around 1915; photograph: Gewandhaus zu Leipzig

Arthur Nikisch, born in Hungary in 1855, received his musical education in Vienna. In 1878, he came to Leipzig in order to take up the appointment of Chorus Master at the Opera House. The following year, he assumed the post of First Kapellmeister (Conductor). Nikisch remained in this position until 1889, during which time he nurtured the increasing popularity of Wagner's operas in Leipzig. For a two-year period, Nikisch shared the duties at the Opera with the young Gustav Mahler.

Following engagements in Boston and Budapest, Nikisch returned to Leipzig to take up the coveted post of Gewandhauskapellmeister (Musical Director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra). During his tenure, Nikisch advocated the works of Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner and, particularly, Anton Bruckner. He had already conducted the premiere of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony with the Gewandhausorchester in the Opera House in 1884, a performance that was to contribute in no small measure to Bruckner's increasing renown. Nikisch also reformed the programming of the Gewandhaus concerts, introducing purely symphonic programmes to the subscription series - a novelty at that time.

Athur Nikisch offered his services free of charge for concerts of the Labourers' Education Institute. On one occasion, on 31st December 1918, he conducted Beethoven's Ninth Symphony for the Institute's "Peace and Freedom Celebration"; this concert instigated the Gewandhaus tradition - upheld to this day - of a performance of Beethoven's "Choral Symphony" each year on New Year's Eve.

In addition to the post of Gewandhauskapellmeister, Nikisch had also assumed the musical direction of the Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester in 1895, as well as being a sought-after guest conductor the world over. He led the Gewandhausorchester on its first ever foreign tour, to Switzerland, in 1916.

In 1922, the year of his death, the square next to Nikisch's house in Thomasiusstraße 28 was renamed Nikischplatz. The building on the site of the house which was home to the Nikisch family from 1906 dates from the 1980s. On the 75th anniversary of Nikisch's death, a memorial hewn by Harald Alff was unveiled on the site.

Hugo Lederer's bust of Nikisch, which stood in front of the artists' entrance to the second Gewandhaus (see Notenbogen Station 11) from 1930, is now on display in the Neues Gewandhaus (third Gewandhaus) (see Notenspur Station 1).

The Nikisch family vault can be found in Leipzig South Cemetery.