Hans Kindler, Conductor and Cellist

Detail from 1944 Life ad

I've been interested for some time in the recordings of conductor Hans Kindler, who founded the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C., in 1931 and led it until 1949. I posted his reading of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 3 (Polish) several years ago, and have just remastered it for those interested.

Today I've brought together quite a number of Kindler's other recordings, working from an LP issued in the 1970s by Washington radio station WGMS and a parcel of 78 needle-drops found on Internet Archive. I've also added a V-Disc and two of Kindler's cello recordings from 1916.

These give a very good account of the music that Kindler was conducting and recording, along with a sense for his skill as a cellist.

Kindler in action

The main item in the collection is Brahms' Symphony No. 3, in a most interesting rendition from 1941. The orchestra - then only a decade old - gives a good account of itself.

Also in the collection are a variety of short items: from 1940 we have William Schuman's "American Festival Overture." This was written for Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony and premiered in 1939. But Koussevitzky did not record it; Kindler's was the first on record.

The second work from the 1940 sessions has an interesting back story. It is a Toccata supposedly by the 17th century composer Girolamo Frescobaldi. At least that is what Kindler thought when he made an arrangement for orchestra. He was working from a cello arrangement purportedly of a Frescobaldi work by fellow instrumentalist Gaspar Cassadó.

It came out much later that Cassadó, somewhat in the vein of Fritz Kreisler and his inventions, was the real author of the piece. Regardless, it's a tuneful work.

At about the same time, Kindler, born in Rotterdam, recorded two 16th century Dutch tunes in his own arrangements. These compositions had appeared on the first official concert ever given by the orchestra, in 1931.

From 1941 comes a recording of "Stars" by the American composer Mary Howe, who was the patron of the orchestra. It's a very good composition that has been recorded a few times.

Moving ahead to early 1945, we have Armas Järnefelt's Praeludium and Berceuse along with the "Dream Pantomine" from Humperdinck's opera Hansel und Gretel. The latter comes from a somewhat noisy V-Disc. The work also was issued on Victor, but I didn't have access to that pressing.

Finally, I thought you might like to hear a few of Kindler's early cello recordings. These were made in 1916, when he was the principal cello of the Philadelphia Orchestra. They are J.C. Bartlett's "A Dream" with by an orchestra conducted by Josef Pasternack, and a transcription of Schumann's "Traumerei," accompanied by pianist Rosario Bourdon.

The young cellist

Kindler died not long after ceding the conductorship of the orchestra to his protégé, another cellist, Howard Mitchell, who recently appeared here leading the music of Paul Creston.

The download includes scans of the WGMS LP, the 78 labels, and a variety of promotional photos and ads. The latter includes a spectacular two-page Victor ad from a 1944 Life Magazine. It features the Kindler portrait at top along with similar images of Vladimir Golschmann, Artur Schnabel and Arthur Fiedler.