Charles Munch Charles Munch

Charles Munch(French pronunciation: ​[ʃaʁl mynʃ]; born Charles Münch; 26 September 1891 – 6 November 1968) was an Alsacian, German-born symphonic 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 Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine(a French territory at that period annexed by the German Empire). The son of organist and choir director Ernst Münch, he was the fifth in a family of six children. He was the brother of conductor Fritz Münchand the cousin of conductor and composer Hans Münch. Although his first ambition was to be a locomotive engineer, he studied violin at the Strasbourg Conservatoire. His father Ernst was a professor of organ at the Conservatoire 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 Fleschin Berlin and Lucien Capetat the Conservatoire de Paris. He was conscripted into the German army in World War I, serving as a sergeant gunner. He was gassed at Péronneand wounded at Verdun. Though most of his career was accomplished in France and in the United States, 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".

In 1920, he became professor of violin at the Strasbourg Conservatoireand assistant concertmasterof the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestraunder Joseph Guy Ropartz, who directed the conservatory. In the early 1920s he was concertmaster for Hermann Abendroth's Gürzenich Orchestrain Cologne. He then served as concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestraunder Wilhelm Furtwänglerand Bruno Walterfrom 1926 to 1933.

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 NestléChocolate Company, rented the hall and hired the Walther Straram ConcertsOrchestra. She was also an accomplished translator of Thomas Mann. Munch also studied conducting with Czech conductor Fritz Zweig, who had fled Berlin during his tenure at Berlin's Krolloper.

Following this success, he conducted the Concerts Siohan, the Lamoureux Orchestra, the new Orchestre Symphonique de Paris, the BiarritzOrchestra (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 taught conducting at the Conservatoire de Parisfrom 1937 to 1945.

He 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 Gestapoand contributed from his income to the French Resistance. For this, he received the Légion d'honneurwith the red ribbon in 1945 and the degree of Commandeurin 1952.

In Boston

Munch made his début with the Boston Symphony Orchestraon 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. 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 Debussyand 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 Monteuxto 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 made a series of recordings for RCA Victorfrom 1949 to 1953 in monauralsound and from 1954 to 1962 in both monauraland stereophonicversions.

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, Virginiawhile 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 Conductorby 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 Holomanwrote Munch's first biography in English, Charles Munch. It was published by Oxford University Press in 2011.