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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Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen & Kindertotenlieder
Klassik - Erschienen bei Sony Classical am 04.11.2016
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Strauss: Don Quixote, Op. 35
Klassik - Erschienen bei Sony Classical am 16.11.2018
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Schubert: Symphony No.2 in B-Flat Major, D. 125 - Beethoven: Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, Op. 43 (Excerpts)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Sony Classical am 04.11.2016
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Honnegger & Dutilleux: Symphonies
Charles Munch, Orchestre National de France
Klassik - Erschienen bei naïve classique am 01.01.1998
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Berlioz: Requiem Op.5 "Messe Des Morts"; Harold En Italie, Op.16
Peter Schreier, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Berliner Philharmoniker, Charles Munch, Igor Markevitch
Klassik - Erschienen bei Deutsche Grammophon (DG) am 01.01.1994
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Mozart: Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in A, K. 622
Benny Goodman, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch
Klassik - Erschienen bei Music Manager am 22.06.2021
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Charles Münch conducts Franck (Paris 1946, Charles Münch Edition, volume 1)
Eileen Joyce, Charles Munch, Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire
Klassik - Erschienen bei XXI Music am 22.06.2018
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Debussy: La Mer, Nocturnes, Printemps...
Klassik - Erschienen bei RCA Red Seal am 12.08.2003
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Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Recorded 1967) (Live)
New York Philharmonic, Charles Munch
Klassik - Erschienen bei New York Philharmonic am 08.12.2017
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Bizet: Symphony in C, Jeux d'Enfants, Patrie
Charles Munch, Orchestre National de ORTF de Paris
Klassik - Erschienen bei >ReNovo< am 27.08.2017
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Schubert Sympohony No. 8 & 9
Charles Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei Mangora Classical am 01.09.2016
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Berlioz: La damnation de Faust (Mono Version)
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch, David Poleri
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1955
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Barraud: Symphonie n 3 / Roussel: Concerto pour piano et orchestre
Orchestre National de France, Charles Munch, Claude Helffer, Orchestre Des Cento Soli, Serge Baudo
Klassik - Erschienen bei Universal Music Division Decca Records France am 01.01.2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Great Conductors: Charles Munch
Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer, Ralph Gomberg, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch
Klassik - Erschienen bei Jube Classic am 10.03.2017
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, Extracts (Mono Version)
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune - Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole, Boléro & La valse (Mono Version)
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
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
Klassik - Erschienen bei Infinity am 07.01.2022
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Ravel: Bolero
Klassik - Erschienen bei RCA Red Seal am 26.06.2009
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Collection Artistes & Repertoires: Symphonies Francaises
Klassik - Erschienen bei RCA Red Seal am 31.12.2002
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Bloch: Concerto Grosso No. 1 (Recorded 1948) (Live)
New York Philharmonic, Walter Hendl, Charles Munch
Klassik - Erschienen bei New York Philharmonic am 08.12.2017
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Beethoven Symphony No. 5 & 6
Charles Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei Mangora Classical am 24.07.2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo