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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Munch conducts Beethoven
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Clara Haskil, Claudio Arrau, Jascha Heifetz, Zino Francescatti, Charles Munch
Clásica - Editado por West Hill Radio Archives el 4 oct. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Charles Münch conducts Ropartz (Paris 1946. Charles Münch Edition, Volume 2)
Charles Munch, Orchestre National de France
Clásica - Editado por XXI Music el 22 jun. 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Prélude à l'après midi d'un faune, L. 86 - Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole, M. 54; Boléro, M. 81 & La Valse, M. 72
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 4 nov. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: Harold en Italie, Op. 16
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 4 nov. 2016
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts)
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 16 sept. 2016
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Masterpieces: Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vol. I (Recordings of 1954 - 1959)
Eugene Ormandy, Sviatoslav Richter, Charles Munch
Clásica - Editado por Masterpieces el 1 abr. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: Symphonie No. 103, "Roulement de timbale" & Symphonie No. 104, "Londre" (Mono Version)
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch
Varios - Editado por BNF Collection el 1 ene. 1953
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Charles Munch Conducts French Music: Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Berlioz and Lalo
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 16 sept. 2016
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Symphonie Fantastique
Clásica - Editado por Living Stereo el 19 ene. 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: La Mer; Prélude à l'après midi d'un faune; Printemps; Trois Nocturnes & Ibert: Escales - Sony Classical Originals
Clásica - Editado por RCA Red Seal el 1 ene. 1962
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Roussel: Symphonies Nos 3, 4 & Suite in F Major
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 28 sept. 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: Symphonie No. 3 "Écossaise" (Mono Version)
Charles Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Varios - Editado por BNF Collection el 1 ene. 1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique - Ravel: Daphnis et Cholé Suite No. 2
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 28 sept. 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Legacy Of Charles Munch
Clásica - Editado por Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. el 20 abr. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Complete Recordings on Warner Classics
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 28 sept. 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: Overtures
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 4 nov. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 / Debussy: La Mer / Ibert: Escales
Clásica - Editado por Living Stereo el 1 ene. 1959
Discoteca Ideal QobuzStereophile: Record To Die For16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Boléro, M. 81; Pavane pour une infante défunte, M. 19 & La Valse, M. 72
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 1 ene. 1963
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Symphony No. 9 in C Major, D. 944 "The Great"
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 4 nov. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Bolero, La Valse; Debussy: Images
Clásica - Editado por Living Stereo el 12 abr. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chausson: Symphony in B-Flat Major, Op. 20 - Franck: Le Chasseur maudit, FWV 44
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 4 nov. 2016
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo