Born: September 26, 1891; Strasbourg, France
Died: November 6, 1968; Richmond, VA
A genial conductor with a particular gift for French music, Charles Münch extended the Boston Symphony's glory years (begun under the baton of Serge Koussevitzky) into the early '60s. Münch was born in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, which at the time (1891) was controlled by Germany and has long hovered between two cultural worlds. Münch himself benefited from both French and German musical training, and his first important musical posts wereRead more in Germany. 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. Münch 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 through sheer resiliency. 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 then became concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra from 1926 to 1933, during Furtwängler's tenure.
But it was back in Paris, in 1933, where Münch made his successful conducting debut in a self-financed concert with the Straram Orchestra. He conducted the Paris Orchestre de la Société Philharmonique (1935-1938) and in 1937 was named director of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris, a post he held through World War II. Münch introduced many new works, including, in 1945, Messiaen's L'Ascension; he quickly became known as a conductor attentive to music's larger formal structures, as well as details of color and sonority. Despite his allegiances 25 years before, Münch refused to collaborate with the Nazis, and indeed supported the French resistance; he was awarded the Légion d'honneur in 1945.
Münch'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. Münch 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.
Münch 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 also 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 Münch's commitment to American music was almost as strong as his allegiance to new French works. Read less
Label: Profil
Catalog: 17067
Release Date: 03/23/2018
Number of Discs: 12
Composer:
Robert Schumann,
Johannes Brahms,
Max Reger
Performer:
Sviatoslav Richter,
Nina Dorliac,
Mstislav Rostropovich
Conductor:
Alexander Gauk,
Stanislaw Wislocki,
Charles Munch,
Erich Leinsdorf
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra,
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra,
Boston Symphony Orchestra
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Composer:
Johannes Brahms,
Camille Saint-Saëns,
Ernest Bloch
Performer:
Gregor Piatigorsky,
Nathan Milstein
Conductor:
Fritz Reiner,
Charles Munch
Orchestra/Ensemble:
RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra,
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Composer:
Gabriel Fauré,
Claude Debussy,
Maurice Ravel
Performer:
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau,
Victoria de los Angeles,
Claude Monteux,
Carole Smith
Conductor:
André Cluytens,
Charles Munch,
Georges Prętre
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Elisabeth Brasseur Chorus,
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire,
Boston Symphony Orchestra
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Label: Sony
Catalog: 533636
Release Date: 04/07/2017
Number of Discs: 65
Composer:
Richard Wagner,
Richard Strauss,
Camille Saint-Saëns,
Ambroise Thomas
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Performer:
Oscar Levant,
Robert Casadesus,
Isaac Stern,
Yo-Yo Ma
Conductor:
Willem Mengelberg,
Josef Stransky,
Arturo Toscanini,
Sir John Barbirolli
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Orchestra/Ensemble:
New York Philharmonic
Label: Praga
Catalog: 250345
Release Date: 11/25/2016
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Ernest Chausson,
Claude Debussy
Performer:
Kathleen Ferrier
Conductor:
Charles Munch,
Sir John Barbirolli
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Boston Symphony Orchestra,
Hallé Orchestra
Label: Rca
Catalog: 88985313302
Release Date: 10/28/2016
Number of Discs: 5
Composer:
Robert Schumann,
Franz Liszt,
Richard Strauss,
Andrey Schulz-Evler
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Performer:
Byron Janis
Conductor:
Fritz Reiner,
Charles Munch,
Hugo Winterhalter
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Chicago Symphony Orchestra,
Boston Symphony Orchestra,
Hugo Winterhalter & His Orchestra
Label: Rca
Catalog: 516979
Release Date: 10/28/2016
Number of Discs: 86
Composer:
Camille Saint-Saëns,
Ludwig van Beethoven,
Franz Schubert,
Vincent D'Indy
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Performer:
Yehudi Menuhin,
Artur Rubinstein,
Margaret Roggero,
Leslie Chabey
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Conductor:
Charles Munch
Orchestra/Ensemble:
New York Philharmonic,
Boston Symphony Orchestra,
Harvard Glee Club
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Label: Rca
Catalog: 532174
Release Date: 10/28/2016
Number of Discs: 60
Composer:
Franz Schubert,
Robert Schumann,
Pietro Nardini,
Dmitri Shostakovich
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Performer:
Stuart Sankey,
Ania Dorfmann,
Leonid Kogan,
Andrei Mitnik
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Conductor:
Howard Mitchell,
Arthur Fiedler,
Arturo Basile,
Robert Shaw
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Portland Symphonic Choir,
Choir Of The Abbey Of Mount Angel
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Label: Urania Records
Catalog: 262
Release Date: 06/24/2016
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Claude Debussy,
Francis Poulenc,
Ralph Vaughan Williams,
Arthur Honegger
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Carol Smith,
Victoria de los Angeles,
Phyllis Curtin,
Adele Addison
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Lorna Cooke De Varon,
Charles Munch
Label: Sony
Catalog: 88875192862
Release Date: 05/13/2016
Number of Discs: 25
Composer:
Pierre Boulez,
Claude Debussy,
Erik Satie,
Olivier Messiaen
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Performer:
Yvonne Minton,
Gervase de Peyer,
Michel Dalberto,
Daniel Varsano
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Conductor:
Pierre Boulez,
Charles Munch,
Seiji Ozawa,
Richard Marlow
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Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ensemble Musique Vivante,
New Philharmonia Orchestra,
Cleveland Orchestra
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Label: Sony
Catalog: 88875192992
Release Date: 05/13/2016
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Darius Milhaud,
Vincent D'Indy,
Jacques Ibert,
Arthur Honegger
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Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer,
Natalie Dessay
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Charles Munch,
Leonard Bernstein,
Pierre Boulez,
Jacques Mercier
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Boston Symphony Orchestra,
New York Philharmonic,
National Orchestra d'Ile de France
Label: Rca
Catalog: 519854
Release Date: 05/06/2016
Number of Discs: 6
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Edouard Lalo,
Max Bruch,
Felix Mendelssohn,
Béla Bartók
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Performer:
Yehudi Menuhin,
Adolf Baller,
Wanda Landowska,
Carroll Hollister
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Pierre Monteux,
Charles Munch,
Antal Doráti,
George Enescu
Orchestra/Ensemble:
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra,
Boston Symphony Orchestra,
RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra
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Label: Warner Classics
Catalog: 555050
Release Date: 04/22/2016
Number of Discs: 91
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Ludwig van Beethoven,
Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny,
Arcangelo Corelli
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Performer:
Yehudi Menuhin,
Hubert Giesen,
Artur Balsam,
Marcel Gazelle
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Conductor:
Landon Ronald,
Pierre Monteux,
Jean Fournet,
Anatole Fistoulari
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Orchestra/Ensemble:
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Paris Symphonic Orchestra,
Colonne Concerts Orchestra
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Label: Warner Classics
Catalog: 555052
Release Date: 04/22/2016
Number of Discs: 18
Composer:
Sir Edward Elgar,
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Antonín Dvorák,
Niccolň Paganini
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Performer:
Yehudi Menuhin,
Gerald Moore,
George Enescu,
David Oistrakh
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Conductor:
Sir Edward Elgar,
George Enescu,
Pierre Monteux,
Sir John Barbirolli
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Label: Praga
Catalog: 250324
Release Date: 01/08/2016
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
Hector Berlioz,
Béla Bartók,
Sir William Walton
Performer:
Jascha Heifetz,
William Primrose
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Izler Solomon,
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Tibor Serlih,
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Label: Erato
Catalog: 553029
Release Date: 11/13/2015
Number of Discs: 7
Composer:
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Jordan Swaim,
Rachael Plotkin,
Mstislav Rostropovich
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Label: Radio France
Catalog: 20
Release Date: 05/12/2015
Number of Discs: 8
Composer:
Claude Debussy,
Edouard Lalo,
Albert Roussel,
Francis Poulenc
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Performer:
Pierre [Baritone Vocals] Bernac,
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau,
Irma Kolassi,
Victoria de los Angeles
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Conductor:
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht,
Paul Paray,
Charles Munch,
Roger Desormičre
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Label: Melodiya
Catalog: 2279
Release Date: 02/10/2015
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Claude Debussy,
Arthur Honegger,
Jean-Philippe Rameau,
Albert Roussel
Conductor:
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Orchestra/Ensemble:
USSR State Academy Symphony Orchestra
Label: Decca
Catalog: 002188302
Release Date: 10/27/2014
Number of Discs: 41
Composer:
John Philip Sousa,
Charles A. Zimmerman,
Francis S. Van Boskerck,
George Norton
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Performer:
Stanley Black,
David Parkhouse,
Alan Loveday,
Robert Merrill
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Conductor:
Rodney Bashford,
Stanley Black,
Bernard Herrmann,
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Orchestra/Ensemble:
Grenadier Guards Band,
London Festival Orchestra,
London Festival Recording Ensemble
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Label: Zyx Records
Catalog: 10183
Release Date: 09/12/2014
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Ludwig van Beethoven,
Felix Mendelssohn,
Johannes Brahms,
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Performer:
Jascha Heifetz
Conductor:
Charles Munch,
Fritz Reiner