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:

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.

Picture editied by R.A.B., taken from the cover of Remington R-199-168.

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)

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.

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.