Dvorak's
4th (8th) Symphony performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Thor Johnson.
The
cover of Remington R-199-182: Jorge Bolet, piano, playing Prokofiev's
2nd Concerto
Alec Templeton is the soloist in Gershwin's Concerto
in F
Symphony
No. 3 by Robert Ward and "Three Hassidic Dances" by
Leon Stein

Symphony
No. 2 of Tchaikovsky
Henry
Brant's Saxophone Concerto - coupled with
Sinfonietta (Rudhyar) and Gymnopedia (Glanville-Hicks) with Jonel
Perlea conducting the RIAS Symphony Orchestra
"The
Origin of Fire" and "Pojohla's Daughter" coupled
with Glazunov's Violin Concerto

Decca
LW 5124:
Sigurd Jorsalvar (Edward Grieg).

Decca
LW 5328:
Symphony No. 3 (Schubert)


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By
asking Laszlo Halasz to join Remington Records in 1952, Don Gabor
brought the classical catalog to a higher level. Although Gabor himself
always had excellent contacts with artists of ethnic popular music,
local jazz musicians and several outstanding performers of classical
music, through conductor Laszlo Halasz, now Recording Director of
the company, Gabor had access to a new group of conductors, soloists
and orchestras of quality. One of the conductors was Thor Johnson.
In 1947 Thor
Johnson had become music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra,
a quality ensemble, disciplined in the classical repertory and also
in the music of modern composers. Thanks to the new conductor, the
orchestra's signature was becoming more modern than it had been before.
The Cincinnati Symphony not only performed existing compositions of
many a modern American composer, but Thor Johnson himself did commission
many works himself to be premiered by the orchestra. The current website
of the orchestra states that during his 11 years in Cincinnati, Johnson
conducted the premieres of 120 American and European works, half of
which were commissioned by him.
The liner notes
of Remington R-199-168 from 1953 read:
The Cincinnati
Symphony Orchestra has been one of the top ranking symphonic
ensembles in the country since its inception in 1895. That year
it presented three series of three concerts each, with an orchestral
unit of 48 players. Today, this 85-members organization of virtuoso
players gives approximately a hundred concerts each season.
Through the years seven men have held the post of music director:
Frank van der Stucken; Leopold Stokowski; Ernst Kunwald; Eugene
Ysaye; Fritz Reiner and Eugene Goossens. In the 1947-1948 season,
the young American conductor, Thor Johnson, was appointed director.
Under his brilliant direction, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
has attained even greater recognition than at any time in the
past.
Aside from its crowded schedule of concert giving in Cincinnati
- a schedule which includes regular subscription concerts with
world famous soloists, young people's and junior high school
series, popular concerts and others - the orchestra tours each
season throughout a large part of the country.
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has been a pioneer in the
recording industry. Beginning in 1917, records have been made
for Columbia, RCA Victor, London ffrr and now Remington.
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Thor Johnson
of course did inherit from his predecessors a well trained ensemble,
but by the very nature of his character, he continued to improve and
perfect the playing of the orchestra. He was a good organizer and
leader, two assets which a conductor needs. Practically every recording
of the orchestra under his baton is the sonic realization of a precise
concept. It is probably this strictness and seriousness which Sergei
Koussevitzky did like less compared to the more playful, "musical"
attitude of a Leonard Bernstein; Thor Johnson was picked on by Koussevitzky
during a course in 1940. True, in Johnson's performances beauty for
the sake of beauty is in conflict with the organization of the execution
of the music. In his music making beauty stands for construction,
for architecture and dynamics. Nevertheless a great intuitive feeling
can be noticed at times.
All these qualities made him not only a good classical conductor but
rather the man to perform often complicated modern scores as his discography
shows.
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Picture
editied by R.A.B., taken from the cover of Remington R-199-168.
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Johnson was a
man of discipline and he also was a man of faith.
Thor Johnson was born in Wisconsin Rapids (Wisconsin) on June
10th, 1913 in a religious family. His father, Herbert Bernharth Johnson,
was of Norwegian descent. He was minister of the Moravian church which
originated in that part of Europe what is the Czech republic today.
His mother, Anna Josephine Reussnig, was born in a family of German
imigrants. When Thor was seven years old his parents took him to a
concert of violinist Efraim Zimbalist. This left a great impression
on the kid as the day after the concert he was imitating the violinist
and taking his bow before an imaginary audience. By the time he was
13 he conducted a choral group and a few years later small ensembles
when studying at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and
later at the Universitty of Michigan. In June 1936 he travelled
to Europe to follow courses at the Mozarteum in Salzburg given by
Bruno Walter (Vienna), Nicolai Malko (Prague), Bernhard
Paumgartner (Salzburg), Felix Weingartner (Vienna). In
early 1937 he spend a few months studying with Nicolai Malco in Prague.
All these famous names were investing in the younger generation by
giving courses and instruction four hours at length. Also significant
was attending performances by Arturo Toscanini, Volkmar
Andreae, and Max Reinhardt. He met Eugene Ormandy
who attended the Salzburg Mozarteum Festival, and also Max Reinhard.
Ormandy was conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony at the time. When
following courses in Leipzig with Herman Abendroth, 23 year
old Thor also met with Richard Strauss. In Budapest he met
the great Béla Bartók. When Thor visited the
Ferenc Liszt Conservatory he was introduced to the head of the academy,
Ernö Dohnányi, who asked about the reception of
his compositions in the USA.
The many teachings he received from some of the great names in music
before the Second World War broke out, must have impressed the young
student. Travelling to Europe, in fact to the region where his religious
beliefs originated from, is of some significance too.
He returned home
to conduct the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra. He went to
Chicago to teach at the University of Michgan and led a variety
of orchestras and bands, a.o. the World Youth Orchestra. In
1940 he took up the post of conductor of the Grand Rapids Symphony,
but after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 he (with so many other
musicians) left the orchestra and enlisted in the US army in 1942
where he became a band leader and performed with pianist Eugene
Liszt and Australian composer Percy Grainger. The also
had enlisted.
When on leave one day he visited Eugene Ormandy, now conductor
of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Arturop Toscanini was not well
to conduct a planned concert and Ormandy proposed that Thor Johnson
would conduct the program. Symphony No. 5 of Jean Sibelius
was on the program, and Tchakovsky's Op. 23 which he performed
with pianist Eugene List. In the end he was sent to Great Britain
where he met with important people from the music scene.
When after World
War Two things were gradually getting back to normal, Thor Johnson
was offered the post of music director of the Cincinnati Symphony
Orchestra which he accepted in 1947, a post which he held for more
than ten years, until 1958.
From 1967 until his death in 1975 he was music director of the Nashville
Symphony Orchestra. He founded the Peninsula Music Festival
and led the Moravian Music Festival for the first time in 1950
and for the last time in the summer of 1974, the last season prior
to his death.
When he became
music director of the Cincinnati Symphony, he was announced as the
youngest native born American to lead a major American orchestra.
This fact may have incited English Decca through their American
branch, London Records, to make recordings with this relative
young conductor and the orchestra of Cincinnati which had of course
a great reputation. This resulted in the recordings of five works.
London LL
405/Decca LXT 2604 - Johann Christian Bach: Sinfonia, coupled
with Franz Schubert's Third Symphony (1951). Schubert's 3rd was later
also available on a 10" Decca LW5328.
London LL
406/Decca LXT 2630 - Alfven: Midsommervaka, coupled with Sigurd
Jorsalvar by Edward Grieg (1951). Sigurd Jorsalvar was reissued on
a 10" Decca LW 5124 in 1954.
London 5355/Decca
LXT 2605 - Berlioz: Nuits d'été, with Suzanne Danco
(released in the nineteen nineties on CD together with recordings
by Ernest Ansermet entitled "French Vocal Music").
The recording
project was probably not what the sales department had expected and
by the time Laszlo Halasz had joined Remington Records, Johnson and
his orchestra were free to record for Don Gabor.
Thor Johnson's
Remington recordings:
R-199-168
- Dvorak: Symphony No. 4 (8th)
R-199-182 - Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2 with Jorge
Bolet, pianist (reissued in 1974 in stereo on Turnabout TV-S
34543)
R-199-184 - Gershwin: Concerto in F with Alec
Templeton, pianist
R-199-185 - Ward: Third Symphony; Stein: Three Hassidic
Dances.
R-199-187 - Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2
R-199-188 - Brant: Concerto for Alto Saxophone, Sigurd Rascher
soloist (coupled with Glanville-Hicks: Gymnopedies 1, 2 and 3; Rudhyar:
Sinfonietta; performed by the RIAS Symphony Orchestra conducted by
Jonel Perlea)
R-199-191 - Sibelius: The Origin of Fire with the Helsinki
University Chorus (coupled with Glazunov's Violin Concerto,
played by André Gabriel and the RIAS Symphony conducted by
Georg Ludwig Jochum)
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Members
of the Helsinki University Chorus in front of Cincinnati's Music
Hall in November 1953, while taking a break during the rehearsals
of the recording of works by Jean Sibelius.
Image courtesy The Helsinki University Chorus -
Ylioppilaskunnan Laulajat - edited by R.A.B.
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The Remington
recordings of Thor Johnson and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra were
generally received with praise. His approach of a score was individualistic.
A good example is the recording of Dvorak's 4th (8th) Symphony which
shows uncommon melodic lines and sometimes prominent brass.
Johnson's leading
the orchestra in Gershwin's Concerto in F played by pianist
Alec Templeton has style and the structure is well balanced,
this certainly also being the result of the chemistry between Templeton
and Johnson.
That things could be different is illustrated by the performances
of Oscar Levant with Thor Johnson given in Chicago Orchestra Hall
in the 1952-53 season. Tchaikovsky's First and Gershwin's
Concerto in F were on the program. There was no rehearsal time
and Oscar Levant complained that Johnson's tempi were too high. At
the end of the Tchaikovsky, irritated Levant dragged Johnson with
such a firm hand to the grand piano in front of the stage that Thor
Johnson almost fell face flat on the stage.
Afterwards critic Irvin Sablosky reported in the Chicago
Times that the Cincinnati Orchestra "is not a good orchestra.
Thor Johnson is not a very good conductor." Another critic wrote
that Johnson did not have the feeling for Gershwin's music. It must
be said however that R-199-184 with the recording of Gershwin's
Concerto in F demonstrates the opposite.
The ill behavior of Oscar Levant resulted in a letter from the Union
to Columbia Records who managed Levant, to forbid Oscar Levant to
perform again with whatever orchestra, because Levant did not honor
contracts.
It is true that
Thor Johnson had his own style. In a review from 1955 the recording
of Tchaikovsky's Second Symphony was compared to the performance
by Sir Thomas Beecham (released on Columbia in the USA and Great Britain,
and in Europe on the Philips label). The reviewer preferred the pace
of Johnson rather than the slow tempi of Beecham. Only in the Andantino
Johnson's concept did not work too well.
Another trait of Thor Johnson was that he could make climaxes and
tutti sound rather loud. Nevertheless the technical quality of the
Remington recording was judged the equal of the Columbia/Philips Minigroove.
The recordings
of works by Ward, Stein, Brant (and of course those of Glanville-Hicks
and Rudhyar) were all done in cooperation with the American
Composer's Alliance. It is not sure who came up with the idea
to make recordings of modern music, Halasz, Gabor or Johnson, but
in view of Johnson's interest it is suspected that he proposed to
record compositions of modern American composers.
The cooperation with the ACA resulted in a few more records
in the Remington catalog of modern American music, performed by other
artists, like the Musirama edition of Ulysses Kay's Concerto for
orchestra and Concerto for Organ and Brass, Lockwood's Quiet design
(organ solo), cello music of Harrison Kerr, and violin music of Otto
Luening. Unfortunately this cooperation did not lead to a vast
list.
When Remington Records ceased to exist the CRI-label took over
the task and published a longer list of recordings. One of the recordings
Thor Johnson made for CRI was of Landscapes by Wen-Chung Chou (Composers
Recordings CRI 122 from 1958).
Johnson commissioned
many compositions. For example: Lord of the Ascendant (Ellis B. Kohs;
1955). Henry Cowell wrote Variations for Orchestra for Thor Johnson
and his orchestra (1956, revised in 1959). Johnson commisioned and
first performed T.J. Anderson's Chamber Symphony with the Nashville
Chamber Orchestra (1969). Ulysses Simpson Kay wrote the overture "Of
New Horizons", commissioned in 1944 by Thor Johnson.
Johnson himself arranged Georg Frederick Handel's Firework Music.
He gave the first performance of William Schumann's Credendum-Article
of Faith (1955) and with the Cincinnati Symphony in 1951 the American
premiere of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, not sung in English as Schoenberg
had asked, but in the original German text.
R.A.B. March
2004 and updated since.
Data
about Thor Johnson's studies in Europe, the period prior to his appointment
in Cincinnati, and the Oscar Levant incident are from the biography
"Thor Johnson - American Conductor" written by Louis Nicholas
and published in 1982 by The Music Festival Committee of the Peninsula
Arts Association, Ephraim, Wisconsin.
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