Charles Munch

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch – Piston: Symphony No. 6 / Martinu: Fantasies Symphoniques (1957/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 49:24 minutes | 1,93 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical

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 were 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.
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Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch – Chausson: Symphony in B-Flat Major, Op. 20 / Franck: Le Chasseur maudit, FWV 44 (1962/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 45:43 minutes | 1,87 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical

It was in 1881 that a young man of twenty-six entered the class of Cesar Franck at the Paris Conservatoire. He had had a not too congenial teacher in Massenet. Franck, then fifty-nine and known as the organist at the Church of Sainte-Clotilde, was attracting young pupils to his side (d’Indy, Duparc, Ropartz, Pierne). His own attempts at composition were as yet almost unknown. Yet Franck at once inspired Ernest Chausson with hopes of becoming a composer.

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Charles Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra – Hector Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique (1962/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 49:01 minutes | 1,86 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © HDTT

…Munch and his orchestra are utterly persuasive in their view of the work and thanks to HDTT, they are with us again in wonderful, near-analogue sound. Incidentally, this 1962 version is rarely seen on a reissue, the 1956 version is the one thats almost always used….

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Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch – Blackwood: Symphony No. 1 – Haieff: Symphony No. 2 (1959/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 50:26 minutes | 2,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical

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 were 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.
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Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Münch – Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (1959/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:02:10 minutes | 2,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA Records

Charles Munch’s isn’t the most subtle Beethoven around, but it certainly is exciting, and that counts for a lot. In particular, this Ninth has what has to be one of the angriest, most fiery first movements ever recorded. It’s worth hearing for that alone, but there are other attractions as well, including a perfectly paced Adagio (about 14 minutes), and a very well-sung finale with some stellar names among the soloists. The Leonore Overture No. 3 also is a barn-burner of a performance, full of genuinely operatic drama and tension. Sonically the disc could use careful remastering. In the symphony, there’s no real soft dynamics at all, but the mid-to-late-’50s stereo sound is otherwise acceptable. This will not be an uncontroversial recommendation: several friends and colleagues have referred to this performance over the years as “vulgar”, and I take their point. Munch fans of course will already own this recording in one of its prior incarnations, but I suspect that more recent collectors might very well find this Japanese RCA reissue, available on demand from Arkivmusic.com, a real treat. –David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
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Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Münch – Beethoven: Overtures (1956/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 47:00 minutes | 1,88 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical

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 were 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.
(more…)