Actually, this recording made during the October 27, 1948 KUOM live broadcast from the Saint Paul Municipal Auditorium of a Wednesday afternoon "Young People's Concert" was conducted by Yves Chardon, not Dimitri Mitropoulos. The French horn soloist mentioned was Waldemar C. Linder, the principal horn of the Symphony for many years. Mitropoulos was at Carnegie Hall conducting the New York Philharmonic in October of 1948. Fritz Reiner was the guest conductor of that week's Friday night Minneapolis Symphony subscription concert. Yves Chardon was the principal cellist of the Minneapolis Symphony then, and also its assistant conductor. He was, like Mitropoulos, also a composer. Chardon was born in France, but came to the U.S. in 1929, joined the Boston Symphony under Koussevitzky, occasionally conducted the Boston Pops, and left Boston for Minneapolis because he was offered both the first chair position with the Minneapolis Symphony and the tempting offer of an assistant conductor position as well. When Mitropoulos left in 1949, Chardon returned to France for a time to become the full-time conductor of an orchestra there, before returning to the U.S. where formed the Florida Symphony in Orlando, and finally moved on to play as the principal cellist for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for 25 years. He then retired to New Hampshire and died at the age of 97 in 2002. I doubt the mystery announcer heard here is Chardon himself, however, since, according to a 2001 NY Times article, Chardon was "the prototype of a typical Parisian (perpetual Gauloise [cigarette] and an accent like Charles Boyer."
Great coverage of Mitropoulos’ work in Minneapolis. Thank you!
Thanks! Lots more coming. I made a Mitropoulos playlist of all of his conducting (so far): th-cam.com/play/PLhut5IVLHxGauu4y5S_1OBRuZIDPvaVyb.html
Actually, this recording made during the October 27, 1948 KUOM live broadcast from the Saint Paul Municipal Auditorium of a Wednesday afternoon "Young People's Concert" was conducted by Yves Chardon, not Dimitri Mitropoulos. The French horn soloist mentioned was Waldemar C. Linder, the principal horn of the Symphony for many years. Mitropoulos was at Carnegie Hall conducting the New York Philharmonic in October of 1948. Fritz Reiner was the guest conductor of that week's Friday night Minneapolis Symphony subscription concert.
Yves Chardon was the principal cellist of the Minneapolis Symphony then, and also its assistant conductor. He was, like Mitropoulos, also a composer. Chardon was born in France, but came to the U.S. in 1929, joined the Boston Symphony under Koussevitzky, occasionally conducted the Boston Pops, and left Boston for Minneapolis because he was offered both the first chair position with the Minneapolis Symphony and the tempting offer of an assistant conductor position as well. When Mitropoulos left in 1949, Chardon returned to France for a time to become the full-time conductor of an orchestra there, before returning to the U.S. where formed the Florida Symphony in Orlando, and finally moved on to play as the principal cellist for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for 25 years. He then retired to New Hampshire and died at the age of 97 in 2002.
I doubt the mystery announcer heard here is Chardon himself, however, since, according to a 2001 NY Times article, Chardon was "the prototype of a typical Parisian (perpetual Gauloise [cigarette] and an accent like Charles Boyer."
Would love to see the documentation on Chardon vs Mitropoulos - thanks!