Charles Munch
A genial conductor with a particular gift for French music, Charles Munch extended the Boston Symphony's glory years (begun under the baton of Serge Koussevitzky) into the early 1960s. Munch was so venerated that conservative Bostonians even declined to fuss over rumors that he was having an affair with his niece, pianist Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer; they wrote it off as part of his romantic French nature. Paradoxically, Munch was not precisely French. He was born in Alsace-Lorraine, which at the time (1891) was controlled by Germany and has long hovered between two cultural worlds. Munch himself benefitted from both French and German musical training, and his first important musical posts were in Germany (his last name was even originally spelled with an umlaut). Yet he came to be regarded as the quintessential French conductor, and his recordings of French repertory with the Boston Symphony remain standards by which others are judged.
Munch studied violin at the Strasbourg Conservatory, where his father was a professor, and, from 1912, in Paris with Lucien Capet. As an Alsatian, he was conscripted into the German army at the outbreak of World War I. Gassed and wounded as an artillery sergeant, he nevertheless survived the war reasonably intact. In 1919, upon returning to Alsace-Lorraine (now back in French hands), he took French citizenship and a violin professorship in Strasbourg. Nevertheless, his professional interests soon sent him to Germany; he studied violin with Carl Flesch in Berlin, then moved to Leipzig to take a violin professorship at the conservatory there, and became concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra from 1926 to 1933, during Furtwängler's tenure.
But it was back in Paris, in 1933, that Munch made his successful conducting debut in a self-financed concert with the Straram Orchestra. He conducted the Paris Orchestre de la Société Philharmonique (1935-38) and in 1937 was named director of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris, a post he held through World War II. Munch introduced many new works, including, in 1945, Messiaen's L'Ascension; he quickly became known as a conductor attentive to music's grand structure as well as to small details of color. Despite his allegiances twenty-five years before, Munch refused to collaborate with the Nazis and indeed supported the French resistance; he was awarded the Légion d'honneur in 1945.
Munch's career quickly accelerated after the war. In 1946 he made his debut with the Boston Symphony (and several other American orchestras) as a guest conductor, and he toured America with the French National Radio Orchestra in 1948. The following year he was appointed music director of the Boston Symphony, which he took on an unprecedented tour of the Soviet Union in 1956. Munch retired from the BSO in 1962 but continued to guest conduct, and helped Serge Baudo launch the Orchestre de Paris in 1967. On tour in America with that orchestra, he died the following year.
Munch was easygoing in rehearsal, reluctant to drill the spontaneity out of an orchestra. He was particularly noted as an elegant, colorful interpreter of French music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; his recordings of that material with the Boston Symphony for RCA are still regarded as classics of their kind. He was a strong advocate for the Franco-Swiss composers of his own generation, especially Roussel, Milhaud, and Honegger. But he had a good touch with the conservative contemporary music of other lands, as may be heard in his few but important recordings of Martinu, Piston, and Barber. Indeed, during his Boston years Munch's commitment to American music was almost as strong as his allegiance to new French works.
© James Reel /TiVo
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Ravel: Bolero, La Valse; Debussy: Images
Classical - Released by Living Stereo on Apr 12, 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Bolero / Rapsodie Espagnole / Pavan For A Dead Princess
Classical - Released by RCA Records Label on Aug 10, 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Ouvertures Le corsaire et de Benvenuto Cellini
Charles Munch, Orchestre National de France
Classical - Released by naïve classique on Jan 1, 1998
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Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 - Sony Classical Originals
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on Nov 29, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Historical Beethoven: Charles Munch
Charles Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Urania Records on Sep 1, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Collection Artistes & Repertoires: Barber
Leonard Slatkin, Charles Munch
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on Mar 1, 2003
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Schumann: Symphony No. 1 in B-Flat Major, Op. 38 "Spring" & Manfred Overture, Op. 115
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on Nov 4, 2016
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Haydn, Beethoven & Others: Orchestral Works (Live)
Charles Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Hilde Gueden, Donald Gramm, Tanglewood Festival Chorus
Classical - Released by Urania Records on Jan 7, 2022
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Honegger: Le chant de Nigamon, Pastorale d'été, Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5
Charles Munch, Orchestre National de France
Classical - Released by naïve classique on Jan 1, 1998
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Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen & Kindertotenlieder
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on Nov 4, 2016
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Strauss: Don Quixote, Op. 35
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on Nov 16, 2018
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Schubert: Symphony No.2 in B-Flat Major, D. 125 - Beethoven: Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, Op. 43 (Excerpts)
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on Nov 4, 2016
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Honnegger & Dutilleux: Symphonies
Charles Munch, Orchestre National de France
Classical - Released by naïve classique on Jan 1, 1998
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Debussy: La Mer, Nocturnes, Printemps...
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on Aug 12, 2003
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Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Recorded 1967) (Live)
New York Philharmonic, Charles Munch
Classical - Released by New York Philharmonic on Dec 8, 2017
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Chopin, Ravel & Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand - Piano Concertos No. 2 & 4
Alfred Cortot, Charles Munch, Sir John Barbirolli, Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, Unnamed Orchestras
Classical - Released by Infinity on Jan 7, 2022
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Collection Artistes & Repertoires: Symphonies Francaises
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on Dec 31, 2002
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Bloch: Concerto Grosso No. 1 (Recorded 1948) (Live)
New York Philharmonic, Walter Hendl, Charles Munch
Classical - Released by New York Philharmonic on Dec 8, 2017
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Water Music Suite, No. 1
Classical - Released by Nar Classical on Jul 10, 2023
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Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique [2011 - Remaster] (2011 - Remaster) (2011 Remastered Version)
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on May 25, 2012
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Saint-saëns, d'indy, mozart, liszt & chabrier: symphony no. 3, "organ" - symphony on a french mountain air - piano concerto no. 21 - symphony no. 35, "haffner" - piano concerto no. 2 - bourée fantasque
Edouard Nies-Berger, Walter Hendl, Arthur Schuller, Robert Casadesus, Charles Munch, New York Philharmonic
Classical - Released by Infinity on May 18, 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo