Last December, James Kirchstein of Mount Horeb donated digital audio tapes (DAT) and compact discs to the Music Library containing recorded performances by pianist Gunnar Johansen. With the permission of Johansen's widow Lorraine, Kirchstein initiated a project, after the pianist's death in 1991, to make digital copies of all of Johansen's personal recordings. Among the recordings are the well-known sets of complete keyboard music by Bach, Liszt, Busoni and Ignace Friedman. In addition, the donation included a wealth of Johansen's recitals and concerts from the 1940s to the 1980s and recordings of his compositions, lectures, and speeches. With this donation, the library has acquired digital preservation-quality copies of recordings by a notable and unique musician.
Born in Copenhagen in 1906, Johansen served as Artist-in-Residence in the University's School of Music from 1939–1976. His propensity for recording composers' complete piano works was an outgrowth of his major performing projects in the 1940s when he traversed the works of Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, and Chopin. Johansen once quipped, "I do composers wholesale, from beginning to end."*
Many of the recordings were made at Johansen's home near Blue Mound where he acted as his own recording technician and producer. He marketed those recordings on his Artist Direct record label. Although some suffered from Johansen's inexperience as a recording technician, the performances, particularly the Liszt, were enthusiastically endorsed by reviewers in scholarly journals and record magazines.
As a performer, Johansen was internationally recognized, but as a composer he was little known. In contrast to his copious and widely disseminated recordings, very few of Johansen's compositions were published during his lifetime. In an attempt to make them accessible, Sikesdi Press of Calgary, Alberta launched the publication of Johansen's Complete Works in 1992 resulting in an abundance of piano and chamber works becoming available. Sikesdi also initiated the Friends of Gunnar Johansen Newsletter in paper and online. Both the Complete Works and the Newsletter are held in the Mills Music Library.
Donor James Kirchstein, longtime friend of Johansen, owned and operated Cuca Records of Sauk City and has made substantial donations to the Music Library in the past. Kirchstein's hope is that the digitized recordings will establish an enduring document of Johansen's accomplishments and provide the impetus for research into his work.