View source for Charles Munch (conductor)

{{Short description|French conductor (1891–1968)}}
{{More footnotes|date=December 2021}}
<!-- please do not add an infobox, per [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Classical music#Biographical_infoboxes]]-->
[[File:Charles Munch fortepan 137800.jpg|thumb|Charles Munch in the Hungarian Radio, 1966, Budapest]]
'''Charles Munch''' ({{IPA|fr|ʃaʁl mynʃ}}; born '''Karl Münch'''; 26 September 1891 – 6 November 1968)<ref name=grove>{{Cite book|url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000019347|isbn=978-1-56159-263-0|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.19347|year=2001|last1=Cooper|first1=Martin|title=Münch &#91;Munch&#93;, Charles}}</ref> was an [[Alsace|Alsatian]] French symphonic [[conducting|conductor]] and violinist. Noted for his mastery of the French orchestral repertoire, he was best known as music director of the [[Boston Symphony Orchestra]].

==Life and career==
Munch was born in 1891 in [[Strasbourg]], Alsace. The son of organist and choir director [[Ernst Münch (musician)|Ernst Münch]], he was the fifth of six children. He was the brother of conductor [[Fritz Münch]] and the cousin of conductor and composer [[Hans Münch (conductor)|Hans Münch]]. Although his first ambition was to be a locomotive engineer, he studied violin at the [[Strasbourg Conservatory]]. His father, Ernst, was a professor of organ at the conservatory and performed at the cathedral; he also directed an orchestra with his son Charles in the second violins.

After receiving his diploma in 1912, Charles studied with [[Carl Flesch]] in Berlin and [[Lucien Capet]] at the [[Conservatoire de Paris]]. He was conscripted into the German army in World War I, serving as a sergeant gunner. He was gassed at [[Battle of the Somme|Péronne]] and wounded at [[Verdun]]. Munch considered that "as an Alsacian and as a musician, [he was] purely and profoundly German, but that [he was] a friend of many countries and first and foremost a musician and a conductor".<ref>Charles Munch, quoted by Bernard Gavoty in his preface for ''Je suis chef d'orchestre'', Paris: 1954.</ref>

In 1920, Munch became professor of violin at the [[Strasbourg Conservatory]] and assistant [[concertmaster]] of the [[Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra]] under [[Joseph Guy Ropartz]], who directed the conservatory. In the early 1920s he was concertmaster for [[Hermann Abendroth]]'s [[Gürzenich Orchestra]] in [[Cologne]]. He then served as concertmaster of the [[Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra]] under [[Wilhelm Furtwängler]] and [[Bruno Walter]] from 1926 to 1933.<ref name=grove/>

At the age of 41, Munch made his conducting debut in Paris on 1 November 1932. Munch's fiancée, Geneviève Maury, granddaughter of a founder of the [[Nestlé]] Chocolate Company, rented the hall and hired the [[Walther Straram Concerts]] Orchestra. Munch also studied conducting with Czech conductor [[Fritz Zweig]], who had fled Berlin during his tenure at Berlin's [[Krolloper]].

Following this success, Munch conducted the [[Concerts Siohan]], the [[Lamoureux Orchestra]], the new [[Orchestre Symphonique de Paris]], the [[Biarritz]] Orchestra (Summer 1933), the [[Société Philharmonique de Paris]] (1935 to 1938), and the [[Orchestre de la Société des concerts du Conservatoire]] (1937 to 1946). He became known as a champion of [[Hector Berlioz]], and befriended [[Arthur Honegger]], [[Albert Roussel]], and [[Francis Poulenc]]. During these years, Munch gave first performances of works by Honegger, [[Jean Roger-Ducasse]], [[Joseph Guy Ropartz]], Roussel, and [[Florent Schmitt]]. He became director of the Société Philharmonique de Paris in 1938 and was featured in the French epic [[Les Enfants du Paradis]], filmed (1945) during the German occupation of Paris.  For two years, he taught conducting at the [[École Normale de Musique]] (from 1937 to 1939). One of his pupils there was also Czech composer-conductor [[Vítězslava Kaprálová]].<ref>Holoman, 2011, p.47</ref><ref>Munch, 1955, p.32</ref>

[[File:Louveciennes Plaque Munch.jpg|thumb|Plaque at Place Émile Dreux, village de Voisins in [[Louveciennes]], [[Yvelines]], France]]

Munch remained in France conducting the Conservatoire Orchestra during the [[German occupation]], believing it best to maintain the morale of the French people. He refused conducting engagements in Germany and also refused to perform contemporary German works. He protected members of his orchestra from the [[Gestapo]] and contributed from his income to the [[French Resistance]]. For this, he received the [[Légion d'honneur]] with the red ribbon in 1945 and the degree of ''Commandeur'' in 1952.

===Boston Symphony Orchestra===
Munch made his début with the [[Boston Symphony Orchestra]] on 27 December 1946. He was its Music Director from 1949 to 1962. Munch was also Director of the Berkshire Music Festival and Berkshire Music Center ([[Tanglewood]]) from 1951 through 1962. He led relaxed rehearsals which orchestra members appreciated after the authoritarian [[Serge Koussevitzky]]. Among his pupils at Tanglewood was [[Serge Fournier]] and the first prize winner of the [[International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors|International Competition of Orchestra Conductors]], [[Seiji Ozawa]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Tribute to Seiji Ozawa |url=https://www.bso.org/stories/a-tribute-to-seiji-ozawa |access-date=2024-02-11 |website=BSO |language=en-us}}</ref> Munch also received honorary degrees from [[Boston College]], [[Boston University]], [[Brandeis University]], [[Harvard University]], and the [[New England Conservatory of Music]].

He excelled in the modern French repertoire, especially [[Claude Debussy]] and [[Maurice Ravel]], and was considered to be an authoritative performer of [[Hector Berlioz]]. However, Munch's programs also regularly featured works by composers such as Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Wagner. His thirteen-year tenure in Boston included 39 world premieres and 58 American first performances, and offered audiences 168 contemporary works. Fourteen of these premieres were works commissioned by the Boston Symphony and the Koussevitzky Music Foundation to celebrate the Orchestra's 75th Anniversary in 1956. (A 15th commission was never completed.)

Munch invited former Boston Symphony music director [[Pierre Monteux]] to guest conduct, record, and tour with the orchestra after an absence of more than 25 years. Under Munch, guest conductors became an integral part of the Boston Symphony's programming, both in Boston and at Tanglewood.

Munch led the Boston Symphony on its first transcontinental tour of the United States in 1953. He became the first conductor to take them on tour overseas: Europe in 1952 and 1956, and East Asia and Australia in 1960. During the 1956 tour, the Boston Symphony was the first American orchestra to perform in the Soviet Union.

The Boston Symphony under Munch recorded prodigiously for [[RCA Red Seal|RCA Victor]] from 1949 to 1962.

Selections from Boston Symphony rehearsals under [[Leonard Bernstein]], Koussevitzky, and Munch were broadcast nationally on the NBC Radio Network from 1948–1951. NBC carried portions of the Orchestra's performances from 1954–1957. Beginning in 1951, the BSO was broadcast over local radio stations in the Boston area. Starting in 1957, Boston Symphony performances under Munch and guest conductors were disseminated regionally, nationally, and internationally through the Boston Symphony Transcription Trust. Under Munch, the Boston Symphony appeared on television. The first BSO television broadcast was under Bernstein in 1949 at Carnegie Hall.

===Orchestre de Paris===
Munch returned to France and in 1963 became president of the [[École Normale de Musique]]. He was also named president of the Guilde française des artistes solistes. During the 1960s, Munch appeared regularly as a guest conductor throughout America, Europe, and Japan. In 1967, at the request of France's Minister of Culture, [[André Malraux]], he founded the first full-time salaried French orchestra, the [[Orchestre de Paris]], and conducted its first concert on 14 November 1967. The following year, he died of a heart attack suffered at his hotel in [[Richmond, Virginia]] while on an American tour with his new orchestra. His remains were returned to France where he is buried in the [[Cimetière de Louveciennes]]. EMI recorded his final sessions, including [[Ravel]]'s ''Piano Concerto in G'', with this orchestra, and released them posthumously.

==Books==
In 1955, Oxford University Press published ''I Am a Conductor'' by Munch in a translation by Leonard Burkat. It was originally issued in 1954 in French as ''Je suis chef d'orchestre''. The work is a collection of Munch's thoughts on conducting and the role of a conductor.

[[D. Kern Holoman]] wrote Munch's first biography in English, ''Charles Munch''. It was published by Oxford University Press in 2011.

==Recordings==
{{main|Charles Munch discography}}

Munch's discography is extensive, both in Boston on [[RCA Victor]] and at his various European posts and guest conducting assignments on various labels, including English [[Decca Records|Decca]], [[EMI]], [[Nonesuch Records|Nonesuch]], [[Erato Records|Erato]] and [[Auvidis-Valois]].

He began making records in Paris before the war, for EMI. Munch then made a renowned series of Decca Full Frequency Range Recordings (FFRR) in the late 1940s. After several recordings with the New York Philharmonic for Columbia, Munch began making recordings for RCA Victor soon after his arrival in Boston as Music Director. These included memorable Berlioz, Honegger, Roussel, and Saint-Saëns tapings.

His first stereophonic recording with the Boston Symphony, in Boston's Symphony Hall in February 1954, was devoted to a complete version of ''[[The Damnation of Faust]]'' by [[Hector Berlioz]] and was made simultaneously in monaural and experimental stereophonic sound, although only the mono recording was released commercially. The stereo tape survives only fragmentarily. The monaural version of this recording was added to the Library of Congress's national registry of sound. Among his final recordings in Boston was a 1962 performance of [[César Franck]]'s symphonic poem ''[[Le chasseur maudit]]''.

Upon Munch's return to Paris, he made Erato disks with the [[Orchestre Lamoureux]], and with the Orchestre de Paris he again recorded for EMI. He also made recordings for a number of other companies including Decca/London.

A number of Munch's recordings have been available continuously since their original releases, among them Saint-Saëns's ''Organ'' Symphony and Ravel's ''Daphnis and Chloe.'' RCA reissued ''Munch Conducts Berlioz'' in a multi-disc set, including all of their Munch recordings. BMG/Japan has issued two different editions of Munch's RCA Victor recordings on CD, 1998 and 2006. The latter was made up of 41 CDs and encompassed all but a handful of Munch recordings with the Boston Symphony. in 2016, Sony released all of Munch's Columbia and RCA Victor recordings including performances by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Philadelphia Orchestra. Many of these had never been officially released on compact disc. In 2018, Warner Classics issued a comprehensive CD box set of Munch's recordings, drawn from their archives of the labels of the former EMI group. Eloquence Australia released a CD box set of Munch's complete DECCA recordings in 2020.

== Television ==
{{main|Charles Munch discography}}

The Boston Symphony appeared on television with Munch locally on WGBH-TV, Boston, and nationally through a syndicated series. [[NHK]] broadcast throughout Japan the opening concert of the Boston Symphony's tour of Japan in 1960. Munch also appeared on film or television with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, the Hungarian Radio and Television Orchestra, the Orchestre National de l'ORTF, and the Orchestre de Radio-Canada. Several of these performances have been issued on DVD.

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist}}

===Sources===
* {{cite book | last=Baker-Carr | first=Janet | title=Evening at Symphony | location=Boston | publisher=Houghton Mifflin | year=1977 | isbn=0-395-25697-6 | url=https://archive.org/details/eveningatsymphon00bake }}
* {{cite book | last=Canarina | first=John | title=Pierre Monteux Maitre | location=Pompton Plains | publisher=Amadeus Press | year=2003 | isbn=1-57467-082-4 | url=https://archive.org/details/pierremonteuxmai00cana }}
* {{cite journal |last=Collard |first=Georges |author2=Clough, E.F. |author-link3=Geoffrey Cuming |author3=Cuming, G.J. |year=1962–63 |title=Charles Munch |journal=Audio & Record Review |volume=ii |issue=9 |pages=16–18 and 83–86 }}
* {{cite book | last=Holoman | first=D. Kern | title=Charles Munch | location=New York | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2011 | isbn=978-0-19-977270-4}}
* {{cite book | last=Honegger | first=Genevieve | title=''Charles Munch: Un Chef d'orchestre dans le siecle'' | location=Strasbourg | year=1992 }}
* {{cite book | last=Kupferberg | first=Herbert | title=Tanglewood | location=New York | publisher=McGraw-Hill| year=1976 | isbn=0-07-035643-2}}
* {{cite book | last=Leinsdorf | first=Erich | title=Cadenza | location=Boston | publisher=Houghton Mifflin | year=1976 | isbn=0-395-24401-3 | url=https://archive.org/details/cadenzamusicalca00lein }}
* {{cite book | last=Monteux | first=Doris| title=It's All in the Music | url=https://archive.org/details/itsallinmusiclif00mont | url-access=registration | location=New York | publisher=Farrar, Straus & Cudahy | year=1965 }}
* {{cite book | last=Monteux | first=Fifi and Monteux, Doris | title=Everyone is Someone | location=New York | publisher=Farrar, Straus & Cudahy | year=1962 }}
* {{cite book | last=Munch | first=Charles, translation from the French by Leonard Burkat | title=I Am A Conductor | location=New York | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1955 }}
* {{cite book | last=Olivier | first=Pierre | title=Charles Munch: a Biography in Recordings | location=Paris | year=1987 }}
* {{cite book | last=Sadie | first=Stanley, Ed. | title=New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians| location=New York | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1980| isbn=0-333-23111-2 }}
* {{cite book | last=Snyder | first=Louis | title=Community of Sound | location=Boston | publisher=Beacon Press | year=1979 | isbn=0-8070-6650-8 | url=https://archive.org/details/communityofsound00snyd }}
* {{cite magazine |last=Unattributed |year=1949 |title=There Will Be Joy |magazine=Time |volume=LIV, 25 |issue=December 19 |pages=40–46 }}
* {{cite book | last=Various | title=Boston Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Hall Centennial, From the Broadcast Archives 1943-2000, (Booklet) | location=Boston | publisher=Boston Symphony Orchestra | year=2001 }}
* {{cite book | last=Wooldridge | first=David | title=Conductor's World | location=New York | publisher=Praeger | year=1970 }}

== External links ==
{{commonscat}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Charles Munch |birth=1891 |death=1968}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070514034255/http://hector.ucdavis.edu/SdC/  Société des concerts du Conservatoire]
* {{Allmusic|class=artist|id=q42080}}
* [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Munch-Charles.htm Charles Munch] at the [http://www.bach-cantatas.com Bach Cantatas website]
* [[František Sláma (musician)]] [http://www.frantisekslama.com/en/conductors-and-a-few-more-recollections-besides Archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190914071051/http://www.frantisekslama.com/en/conductors-and-a-few-more-recollections-besides |date=2019-09-14 }}. More on the history of the Czech Philharmonic between the 1940s and the 1980s: ''Conductors''

{{BSO music directors}}
{{Orchestre de Paris conductors}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Munch, Charles}}
[[Category:1891 births]]
[[Category:1968 deaths]]
[[Category:Musicians from Strasbourg]]
[[Category:Musicians from the German Empire]]
[[Category:20th-century French conductors (music)]]
[[Category:French male conductors (music)]]
[[Category:Alsatian-German people]]
[[Category:Grammy Award winners]]
[[Category:People from Alsace-Lorraine]]
[[Category:Conservatoire de Paris alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the École Normale de Musique de Paris]]
[[Category:20th-century French male musicians]]
[[Category:20th-century German male musicians]]
[[Category:German Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:French male classical violinists]]
[[Category:20th-century German classical violinists]]
[[Category:German male classical violinists]]
[[Category:Münch family|Charles]]
[[Category:Concertmasters of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra]]
[[Category:Players of the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne]]
[[Category:Music directors of the Boston Symphony Orchestra]]
[[Category:Music directors of the Orchestre de Paris]]
[[Category:Chief conductors of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire]]