Karl Münchinger

Karl Münchinger was a German conductor of European classical music. He helped to revive the now-ubiquitous Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel, through recording it with his Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in 1960. Münchinger is also noted for restoring baroque traditions to the interpretation of Bach's oeuvre, his greatest musical love: moderate-sized forces, judicious ornamentation, and rhythmic sprightliness, though not on "period instruments".
Born in Stuttgart, Münchinger studied at the Hochschule für Musik in his home city. At first, he guest-conducted often, supporting himself also with other duties as an organist and church choir director. In 1941, he became principal conductor of the Hanover Symphony, a post he held for the next two years. He held no other conducting position until the end of World War II.
The year that the war ended, he founded the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, which he built into an impressive touring ensemble; it made its Paris debut in 1949 and its American debut in San Francisco in 1953.