Berlioz, Mendelssohn, and Wagner represent opposite poles in conducting. Berlioz's beat was “neat” and “exact,” according to Russian composer Cesar Cui, and Mendelssohn's “movements were short and decided,” as described by composer Ferdinand Hiller. Wagner's style was different: “not that of a dry Taktschläger [time beater], but, rather, of a musician who spoke from the soul … through gestures that were pure music,” according to conductor Arthur Nikisch. Wagner's style, which showed the music rather than the beats, caused problems in London. The Prelude to Tristan and Isolde nearly fell apart because the orchestra, unfamiliar with the piece, couldn't tell which beat of the bar Wagner was on. His assistant Hans Richter wrote in his diary, “The musicians often did not understand the Master's beat.” Richter saved the show by jumping up and giving the musicians a clear six-in-a-bar. Wagner had a free and subjective approach to tempo, unlike Berlioz and Mendelssohn who took fewer liberties. The London critic Henry Smart wrote in 1855 that he reduced tempo by as much as a third in Beethoven's lyrical passages. Cesar Cui preferred Berlioz to Wagner in conducting Beethoven, because Wagner “often shows affectation, and introduces accelerandos of doubtful sentimentality.”