History
The great orchestral trainers

Hans von Bülow had already turned the Meiningen Court Orchestra into a first-class ensemble when he took over the Berliner Philharmoniker. In only five years at the helm he laid the foundation of the special musical qualities that were to become inseparably linked with the orchestra’s name. Bülow’s successors, on the other hand, came to stay.

Arthur Nikisch, who took up his post in 1895, went on to influence the orchestra’s style decisively for the next 27 years. Nikisch once claimed that, “each and every member of a first class orchestra has earned the title of „artist’”, and with this credo he gave the Berliner Philharmoniker the virtuosity and self confidence that have become the orchestra’s hallmark. If Bülow’s interpretations tended towards a somewhat analytical brilliance, Nikisch’s performances were full of sustained splendour and rich, warm sonorities, which he achieved with the most economical gestures, and by a rhapsodic, almost improvisatory breadth. So it is unsurprising that the cornerstones of his repertoire were Tchaikovsky, Berlioz, Liszt, Strauss, and Mahler along with a special devotion to Bruckner. Under his leadership the orchestra attained its international stature, and major soloists flocked to Berlin to appear with the Philharmonic.

When Nikisch died in 1922, Wilhelm Furtwängler became his successor. The young conductor built on Nikisch’s achievements. His idiosyncratic beat and impassioned musicmaking demanded an extremely high level of autonomy and sensitivity from the musicians. He and his Berlin orchestra became legendary interpreters of Beethoven, Brahms and Bruckner. At the same time Furtwängler expanded the repertoire to include contemporary pieces by Schoenberg, Hindemith, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Through tours abroad, the Philharmonic established their international reputation as one of the finest orchestras in the world.