Charles Munch

Background

Charles Munch was born on September 26, 1891, in Strasbourg, Alsace (then part of Germany), the son of Ernest Münch, a musician, and Célestine Simon.

Education

While studying at the Gymnase Protestant from 1898 to 1912, he also specialized in the violin at the Strasbourg Conservatory, which was directed by Hans Pfitzner. In addition, he played the church organ and he was a second violinist in his father's orchestra.

After receiving his conservatory diploma in 1912, he pursued advanced violin studies with Carl Flesch in Berlin and Lucien Capet at the Paris Conservatory. He also began medical studies in Paris.

Career

During World War I Munch served as a sergeant gunner in the German army. He was gassed at Péronne and wounded at Verdun.

In 1919 he returned to Strasbourg (Alsace had been restored to France by the Versailles Treaty) and briefly worked as a translator for an insurance company before becoming assistant concertmaster of the Strasbourg Orchestra under Guy Ropartz, director of the conservatory.

In 1920 he was appointed violin professor at the conservatory. In the early 1920's he also was concertmaster of Hermann Abendroth's Gürzenich concerts in Cologne, where he coached with Joseph Szigeti.

Munch was concertmaster from 1926 to 1932 of Leipzig's Gewandhaus Orchestra, directed by Wilhelm Furtwängler. Munch's first conducting opportunities came in Leipzig, with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and with the chamber orchestra at Bach's Thomaskirche, where he usually played on Sunday. It was at this time that Munch resolved to become a conductor.

Munch relinquished his German citizenship, left the Gewandhaus Orchestra, and settled in Paris, where he rented a hall and hired the Straram Orchestra. Munch made his professional conducting debut on November 1, 1932. This successful performance earned him engagements in Paris with the Concerts Siohan and the Lamoureux Orchestra and at the Biarritz Orchestra's 1933 summer season. He also coached with Paul Bastide and the Hungarian Alfred Szendrei.

Munch was principal conductor from 1935 to 1938 of the Société Philharmonique de Paris. Already established as a leading interpreter of Berlioz, Munch soon identified himself with contemporary music, especially that of his friends Arthur Honegger, Albert Roussel, and Francis Poulenc.

Upon Philippe Gaubert's resignation in 1938, Munch became director and principal conductor of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris, one of France's oldest and most respected orchestras. He became professor of violin at the École Normale de Musique in 1936 and taught conducting at the Paris Conservatory from 1937 to 1945. Believing that wartime performances would help maintain French morale, Munch remained with the Paris Conservatory Orchestra after Paris was occupied by the Germans in World War II, though he would not direct the Paris Opera. He avoided presenting official concerts for the Nazis and refused to conduct contemporary German music. He was able to protect members of the orchestra and other musicians from the Gestapo and reportedly contributed all of his wartime music earnings to the resistance.

After the war he was the first French conductor to perform in England, where he conducted the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) Symphony. He was the first foreigner after the war to conduct the London Philharmonic (1944 - 1945 season).

Munch resigned from the Paris Conservatory Orchestra in 1946 when asked to perform fewer modern works.

On December 27, 1946, he made his North American debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, as part of his first American tour.

In 1948 he led the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française on its first American tour, the first American tour by any French orchestra in thirty years. Performances were given at Carnegie Hall and in over thirty American and Canadian cities.

The next year he was appointed conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. (Years before in Paris, the New York Tribune music critic Virgil Thomson had observed that Munch would be an ideal conductor for the Boston Symphony. ) Munch gave the first performance of his thirteen-year tenure (the second-longest uninterrupted term with the orchestra after Serge Koussevitzky's twenty-five years) on October 7, 1949, the fiftieth anniversary of Symphony Hall. His modesty and graciousness contrasted sharply with Koussevitzky's more autocratic and theatrical personality; for example, Munch had more relaxed, less disciplinarian rehearsals. The orchestra produced a different sound, especially from the strings, under his direction. Some critics complained about his excessively accelerated tempi, especially in the German classics, but most admired his intensity as well as his mastery of rhythm and clarity of phrasing.

In March 1952, when he returned to the podium after an extended illness, he received a standing ovation from both orchestra and audience. Upon Koussevitzky's sudden death in 1951, Munch assumed sole directorship of the Berkshire Music Center and the Tanglewood Music Festival (July-August concerts) in Lenox, Massachusetts, though he still returned each summer to Paris.

In May 1952 he took the orchestra to the Paris Festival of Twentieth-Century Music as part of its first European tour. Assisted by Pierre Monteux, Munch led another tour of Europe in 1956.

In September the Boston Symphony became the first American orchestra to play in the Soviet Union. It performed before enthusiastic audiences at the Leningrad Conservatory and in Moscow.

Munch, assisted by Aaron Copland and Richard Burgin, conducted the orchestra on a tour of Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand in 1960. Munch retired in 1962. During his tenure in Boston Munch offered 39 world premieres, 17 American first performances, and 13 Boston premieres. He presented 168 (including 36 American) contemporary works, and he appointed the first woman soloist to the orchestra.

After his retirement Munch returned to Paris. In 1963 Munch became president of the École Normale de Musique, and in 1964 he conducted the inaugural concert for the auditorium of the Maison de la Radio in Paris. As part of the plans proposed by André Malraux, minister of cultural affairs, and Marcel Landowski, general inspector of culture, to establish and subsidize France's first full-time salaried orchestra, Munch became the permanent director of the Orchestre de Paris, which made its debut in Paris on November 14, 1967. While on a tour of North America with the orchestra, he died in Richmond, Virginia, on November 6, 1968.

Achievements

• A noted conductor and violinist on both sides of the Atlantic, Charles Munch is best remembered for his tenure with the Boston Symphony during which he produced some of the first stereo recordings.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Charles Munch - The Complete RCA Album Collection

    (Sony Classical presents a new reissue of all the recordin...)

  • Charles Munch - The Complete Warner Classics Recordings (13CD)

    (ü These 13CDs, containing Munch’s entire Warner Classics ...)

  • Tribute to Charles Munch

    (Charles Munch (1891-1968), legendary conductor and violin...)

  • Brahms: Symphony No.1

    (2014 Japanese pressing. 2011 Remaster. Warner Classics.)

  • Ravel: Valses Nobles et Sentimentales / Berlioz: Damnation of Faust Excerpts / Faure: Pelleas and Melisande Suite

    (CD ALBUM)

  • Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 / Debussy: La Mer / Ibert: Escales
  • Charles Munch Conducts French Music: Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Berlioz and Lalo
  • Great Conductors of the 20th Century ~ Charles Munch
  • Charles Munch Conducts Berlioz
  • Munch in Boston: The Early Years
  • Berlioz: Harold in Italy; The Roman Carnival Overture; Benvenuto Cellini Overture; Le Corsaire Overture; Beatrice et Benedict Overture

Views

Quotations: "The conductor must breathe life into the score. It is you and you alone who must expose it to the understanding, reveal the hidden jewel to the sun at the most flattering angles. "

"Music is an art that expresses the inexpressible. It rises far above what words can mean or the intelligence define. Its domain is the imponderable and impalpable land of the unconscious. "

"The collective conscience of a hundred musicians is no light burden. Think for a moment of what it would mean to a pianist if by some miracle every key of his instrument should suddenly become a living thing. "

Membership

From 1963 Charles Munch was president of the École Normale de Musique. He was named president of the Guilde Française des Artistes Solistes in 1966.

Connections

On January 31, 1933, Charles Munch married Geneviève Maury, who died on August 21, 1956.

Father:

Ernest Münch

Ernst Münch was a French organist and choir conductor.

Mother:

Célestine Simon

Wife:

Geneviève Munch (Maury)

Brother:

Fritz Münch

Fritz Münch was a French music administrator and conductor, as well as being a pastor.

Friend:

Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel

Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel was a French composer.

Friend:

Arthur Honegger

Arthur Honegger was a Swiss composer.

Friend:

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and pianist.

References

• Charles Munch
• A Gallic Trio. 3 Discographies. Charles Munch (Munch), Paul Paray, Pierre Monteux. 2003. (John Hunt Discographies)
• Charles Munch: Late Romantic Masterpieces
• Charles Munch Conducts Romantic Mast Erworks