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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Claudio Arrau plays Beethoven Piano Concertos
Claudio Arrau, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch, Pierre Monteux
Classical - Lançado por West Hill Radio Archives em 12/11/2012
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel Boléro, La Valse and Rapsodie Espagnole & Debussy Images for Orchestra
Charles Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Lançado por Mangora Classical em 14/07/2016
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Historical Beethoven: Charles Munch
Charles Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Lançado por Urania Records em 01/09/2023
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: La damoiselle élue - Berlioz: Les nuits d'été (Mono Version)
Victoria de los Angeles, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch
Classical - Lançado por BNF Collection em 01/01/1955
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: La mer, Ibéria, Nocturnes & Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Charles Munch, Orchestre Philarmonique de L'ORTF
Classical - Lançado por ClassicMelody.fr em 01/01/2015
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Mendelssohn Symphonies No. 4 & 5 and Octet in E-Flat
Charles Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Lançado por Mangora Classical em 26/08/2016
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé, M. 57 & La valse, M. 72 (2020 Digital Remaster) [Live]
Charles Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Berkshire Festival Chorus
Classical - Lançado por JPK Musik em 02/10/2020
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Collection Artistes & Repertoires: Barber
Leonard Slatkin, Charles Munch
Classical - Lançado por RCA Red Seal em 01/03/2003
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Symphony No. 1 in B-Flat Major, Op. 38 "Spring" & Manfred Overture, Op. 115
Classical - Lançado por Sony Classical em 04/11/2016
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Concertos pour piano Nos. 21 & 27 (Mono Version)
Robert Casadesus, Charles Munch, New York Philharmonic
Miscellaneous - Lançado por BNF Collection em 01/01/1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Dukas: L'apprenti sorcier - Saint-Saëns: Le rouet d'Omphale & Ravel: Ma mère l'oye (Mono Version)
Charles Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Miscellaneous - Lançado por BNF Collection em 01/01/1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn, Beethoven & Others: Orchestral Works (Live)
Charles Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Hilde Gueden, Donald Gramm, Tanglewood Festival Chorus
Classical - Lançado por Urania Records em 07/01/2022
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Honegger: Le chant de Nigamon, Pastorale d'été, Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5
Charles Munch, Orchestre National de France
Classical - Lançado por naïve classique em 01/01/1998
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen & Kindertotenlieder
Classical - Lançado por Sony Classical em 04/11/2016
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Strauss: Don Quixote, Op. 35
Classical - Lançado por Sony Classical em 16/11/2018
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Honnegger & Dutilleux: Symphonies
Charles Munch, Orchestre National de France
Classical - Lançado por naïve classique em 01/01/1998
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: Requiem Op.5 "Messe Des Morts"; Harold En Italie, Op.16
Peter Schreier, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Berliner Philharmoniker, Charles Munch, Igor Markevitch
Classical - Lançado por Deutsche Grammophon (DG) em 01/01/1994
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in A, K. 622
Benny Goodman, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch
Classical - Lançado por Music Manager em 22/06/2021
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Charles Münch conducts Franck (Paris 1946, Charles Münch Edition, volume 1)
Eileen Joyce, Charles Munch, Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire
Classical - Lançado por XXI Music em 22/06/2018
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: La Mer, Nocturnes, Printemps...
Classical - Lançado por RCA Red Seal em 12/08/2003
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Recorded 1967) (Live)
New York Philharmonic, Charles Munch
Classical - Lançado por New York Philharmonic em 08/12/2017
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo