Gunnar Johansen - legendary artist
Music and Vision
'His gigantic recording output is occasionally recalled. His association
with Egon Petri and Busoni is sometimes remembered. His compositions are
not more than distant tales dimly heard.
'It is most apt that he heralded from the Scandinavian north -- home of
deep fogs, obscure tales, mighty feats and acts of magic power now lost
in the mists of time. And from those mists comes the occasional flash of
lightening.'
Today at Music & Vision, Gordon Rumson uses pictures, words and sound to
tell the extraordinary story of Gunnar Johansen :
http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/2001/01/johansn1.htm?a
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Nicolas Hodges
--
Nic
John Gavin
works. I can't say I'm familiar with his playing, but there is quite a
discussion going on about him at the Great Pianists website. You might
want to check it out.
Johansen's recordings (lots of Bach, Liszt and Busoni) were never easily
obtainable. They came out of Madison, Wisconsin, where he taught. I
understand he was quite the Renaissance Man, with knowledge in many
areas.
MT
friend). They're very, very good. He sold the stuff himself. I don't
know if they can still be obtained. I recall that Don Manildi had some
interest in these recordings, and I hope some day they can be archived.
I am curious to hear Johansen's Busoni. You can never have too much
Busoni on records.
Speaking of which, don't you fellas think that Busoni's time has finally
come?
Regards,
MrT
Matthew B. Tepper
It does seem that way now, or at least more so than it has in years. Let's
see if next Saturday's Metropolitan Opera broadcast of _Doktor Faust_ makes
any new converts!
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html
My main music page --- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
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Mr. Mike
<n...@nicolashodges.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Has anyone here heard him? Comments?
I have a few of his home-made LPs ... whatever happened to this material? Was it
preserved on tape?
J. Teske
at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I was a student of his
during 1961-1964, not on piano which I did not play at the time, but
rather for a series of courses he and Rudolf Kolisch ran called
"Chamber Music in Performance." On numerous occasions I also served
as his page turner, most notably for three cycles of the Beethoven
Piano/Violin sonatas with Kolisch. (I have written of my association
with Kolisch before.)
Johansen had a studio at his residence in Black Earth Wisconsin near
Madison and at the time I knew him had recorded all the keyboard music
of Bach on a specially built double keyboard piano. He was working on
the Liszt cycle when I was at the University. During my first year at
Madison he did a series of seven or eight recitals of Liszt piano
works to celebrate the Lizst Sesquicentenial [and also the 75th
anniversary of his death] This was in the academic year 1961-1962.
As a violinist, I was in the University Symphony when in a single
concert he played both piano concertos, Todentanz, and the Spanish
Rhapsody [based on La Folia]. I think this last work was a
transcription as I never heard of it again in an orchestral version.
Johanssen distributed his recordings [pressed by RCA I was told]
directly from his house under a label called Artist Direct. I have no
idea of their availability today. As a student then, I was too poor to
buy any. If anyone has tapes of his performances, It would be WHA, the
University of Wisconsin public radio which recorded virtually every
faculty recital on campus. I suspect that they also have a set of the
LPs. They played the Bach set frequently. There were a number of
feature articles about Johansen in the two Madison papers and even in
the Milwaukee papers for I had heard of him even before I went to
school there. Johansen was a most engaging lecturer, an effervescent
personality and a man widely read in many fields. He had a great sense
of humor, occasionally ironic. He once told a story in class at the
expense of Kolisch, who took extreme umbrage at what he said. Kolisch
was about to leave the stage.
My most personal reminiscence of Johansen and Kolisch occured on Nov
22, 1963. Johansen's class was on Friday afternoons at 1 PM and was
heavily attended. On that day of course, President Kennedy was
assasinated. When the class began, I was on stage with Johansen and
Kolisch to begin a Beethoven sonata [I turned the pages]. At that
point we knew Kennedy had been shot, but no more. Johansen said he
would begin the performance, but he knew some students had portable
radios with them [this was very uncommon in 1963.] They had barely
begun the performance when a student interupted us to say a special
bulletin was coming across the radio. The student turned up his radio
and we heard Walter Cronkite announce that President Kennedy was dead.
Both Kolisch and Johansen broke down as did most of the audience. The
performance did not go on. And like most Americans alive at the time,
I remembered exactly what I was doing at that time on that day.
Twenty five years later, my own two children were at the UW and during
a visit to the campus and out of curiosity I went to the new
auditorium of the music school to see if the Friday afternoon
tradition continued. To my surprise, Johansen, by now a long time
emeritus, was playing Liszt that day. After the performance, I went
backstage to greet him. He looked at me for a few moments and said to
me; "you were the fellow who turned the pages for me many years ago."
Jon Teske, violinist
On Sun, 14 Jan 2001 17:39:49 +0000, Nicolas Hodges
<n...@nicolashodges.demon.co.uk> wrote:
ptr
http://www.cadvision.com/Home_Pages/accounts/liszt/johansenhomepage.html
ptr
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Tony Movshon
> Speaking of which, don't you fellas think that Busoni's time has finally
> come?
Ask me after tomorrow night's Doktor Faust at the Met.
--
Tony Movshon mov...@nyu.edu
Brendan R. Wehrung
J. Teske (chac...@worldnet.att.net) writes:
> Yes, Indeed I have. For many years Johansen was an Artist in Residence
> at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I was a student of his
> during 1961-1964, not on piano which I did not play at the time, but
> rather for a series of courses he and Rudolf Kolisch ran called
> "Chamber Music in Performance." On numerous occasions I also served
> as his page turner, most notably for three cycles of the Beethoven
> Piano/Violin sonatas with Kolisch. (I have written of my association
> with Kolisch before.)
> Johansen had a studio at his residence in Black Earth Wisconsin near
> Madison and at the time I knew him had recorded all the keyboard music
> of Bach on a specially built double keyboard piano. He was working on
Was this one of those pianos built to play the music of Emannual Moor?
Brendan
Chuck Nessa
vendor and customer. I was also a customer of his, and have a personally
inscribed lp of Busoni "Album VI".
Jazz pianist Cecil Taylor was on faculty at the time. At the interval of
Cecil's first solo recital, I encountered Gunnar in the lobby. Gunnar
said "The noise in the background is the keyboard faculty running - to
book practice rooms."
J. Teske
Wehrung) wrote:
>
>> Johansen had a studio at his residence in Black Earth Wisconsin near
>> Madison and at the time I knew him had recorded all the keyboard music
>> of Bach on a specially built double keyboard piano. He was working on
>
>Was this one of those pianos built to play the music of Emannual Moor?
>
>Brendan
>
Regret I do not know the answer to that. I saw a picture of this piano
once in a local newspaper story, but I never saw the piano since it
was at his house. He played a German Steinway which he obtained while
I was a student there [ca 1961] which was in his studio on campus.
Johansen was not generally available for lessons unless you were
already something of a super virtuoso. There were several other piano
professors on staff. I did know one of his students rather well as she
was my accompanist when I did violin/piano things. She could play
just about anything I gave her at sight.
Jon Teske
Michael Stewart
recordings. Worth checking out.
Michael
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