Boston Symphony Orchestra Charles Munch - International ...

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LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 1770–1827 Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, op.43 (extracts) The Creatures of Prometheus · Les Créatures de Prométhée 1 Ouverture: Adagio — Allegro molto con brio 5.30 2 No.5: Adagio — Andante quasi allegretto 8.43 3 No.16: Finale: Allegretto — Allegro molto 5.47 Directed by David M. Davis Produced by Jordan M. Whitelaw Recorded: Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, 8 March 1960 π & © 1960, 2011 Boston Symphony Orchestra & WGBH Educational Foundation Taken from a broadcast produced by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in association with Seven Arts Associated Corp. Digitisation by Safe Sound Archive Symphony No.4 in B flat major, op.60 4 I Adagio — Allegro vivace 10.53 5 II Adagio 9.14 6 III Allegro vivace 4.48 7 IV Allegro ma non troppo 5.39 Directed by David M. Davis Produced by Jordan M. Whitelaw Recorded: Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, 18 April 1961 π & © 1961, 2011 Boston Symphony Orchestra & WGBH Educational Foundation Taken from a broadcast produced by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in association with Seven Arts Associated Corp. Symphony No.5 in C minor, op.67 8 I Allegro con brio 6.42 9 II Andante con moto 11.37 10 III Allegro — 5.11 11 IV Allegro 8.41 Directed by David M. Davis Produced by Jordan M. Whitelaw Recorded: Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, 3 November 1959 π & © 1959, 2011 Boston Symphony Orchestra & WGBH Educational Foundation Original broadcast produced by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in association with the Lowell Institute Cooperative Broadcasting Council, WGBH TV, Boston, and NERTC (National Educational Radio and Television Center) Digitisation by Safe Sound Archive Boston Symphony Orchestra CHARLES MUNCH For ICA Classics Executive Producer: Stephen Wright Head of DVD: Louise Waller-Smith Executive Consultant: John Pattrick Music Rights Executive: Aurélie Baujean ICA Classics gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Jean-Philippe Schweitzer and Pierre-Martin Juban For Boston Symphony Orchestra Historical: Music Director: Charles Munch Manager: Thomas D. Perry President, Board of Trustees: Henry B. Cabot 2011: Managing Director: Mark Volpe Artistic Administrator: Anthony Fogg Orchestra Manager: Ray Wellbaum Senior Archivist: Bridget Carr For WGBH Educational Foundation 2011: WGBH Media Library and Archives Manager: Keith Luf PBS Distribution Counsel: Jeff Garmel DVD Studio Production DVD Design & Development: msm-studios GmbH Producer: Johannes Müller Screen Design: Hermann Enkemeier DVD Authoring & Video Encoding: Jens Saure Audio Postproduction & Encoding: Sven Mevissen Video Postproduction: Michael Hartl Project Management: Jakobus Ciolek DVD Packaging Product Management: Helen Forey for WLP Ltd Booklet Editing: Sue Baxter for WLP Ltd Introductory Note & Translations © 2011 International Classical Artists Ltd Cover Photo: Joe Covello Art Direction: Georgina Curtis for WLP Ltd π & ç 2011 Boston Symphony Orchestra & WGBH Educational Foundation under exclusive licence to International Classical Artists Ltd ç 2011 The copyright in the design, development and packaging of this DVD is owned by International Classical Artists Ltd ICA CLASSICS is a division of the management agency International Classical Artists Ltd (ICA). The label features archive material from sources such as the BBC, WDR in Cologne and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, as well as performances from the agency’s own artists recorded in prestigious venues around the world. The majority of the recordings are enjoying their first commercial release. The ICA Classics team has been instrumental in the success of many audio and audiovisual productions over the years, including the origination of the DVD series The Art of Conducting, The Art of Piano and The Art of Violin; the archive-based DVD series Classic Archive; co-production documentaries featuring artists such as Richter, Fricsay, Mravinsky and Toscanini; the creation of the BBC Legends archive label, launched in 1998 (now comprising more than 250 CDs); and the audio series Great Conductors of the 20th Century produced for EMI Classics. WARNING: All rights reserved. Unauthorised copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting prohibited. Licences for public performance or broadcasting may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd., 1 Upper James Street, London W1F 9DE. In the United States of America unauthorised reproduction of this recording is prohibited by Federal law and subject to criminal prosecution. Made in the EU 2 3
CHARLES MUNCH CONDUCTS BEETHOVEN Between 1955 and 1979, Boston’s public television station WGBH televised more than one hundred and fifty live concerts by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Four music directors were featured in the series — Charles Munch, Erich Leinsdorf, William Steinberg and Seiji Ozawa —, as well as a dozen prominent guest conductors. More than a hundred of these performances survive in the archives of the station and of the Boston Symphony. Because they exist in several generations of various media and have been surrounded by legal issues, access has been impossible even for researchers, let alone for the interested musical public. The present series of DVDs will make many of these performances available for the first time since they went out on air. Music director Charles Munch launched the Boston Symphony Orchestra into television in 1955. He was a charismatic personality well suited to the new medium — with his sturdy build, shock of white hair and mischievous smile, it is no wonder than some mink-clad musical matrons from Boston’s Back Bay dubbed him ‘le beau Charles’. His appointment to the Boston position in 1949 brought him to the summit of his career. He was by then fifty-eight years old, but only in his seventeenth season as a conductor; Munch made his first appearance on the podium at the age of forty-one, in 1932, after spending many years as a professional violinist. He studied with two of the most eminent teachers of the era, Lucien Capet in France and Carl Flesch in Berlin, and served as concertmaster of orchestras in Cologne and Leipzig, working under such conductors as Wilhelm Furtwängler and Bruno Walter. During his thirteen years as music director in Boston, Munch explored a wide range of repertoire from the Baroque (Bach was a particular passion) to the contemporary. He led sixty-eight world premieres or American premieres there, the last of them being Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No.3, Kaddish, while the composer looked on from the balcony. His greatest renown, however, came for his performances of French music by Berlioz, Debussy, Saint-Saëns and Ravel, as well as such living composers as Honegger, Roussel, Poulenc and Dutilleux. His activities as a recording conductor spanned more than three decades (1935–68), and some of the recordings of French repertoire that he made with the Boston Symphony Orchestra have sold steadily for fifty years and more and remain a permanent standard of reference. The long-playing record made recording all nine Beethoven symphonies a badge of honour for many conductors (several of whom, like Herbert von Karajan and Bernard Haitink, have recorded the cycle over and over again). Charles Munch was one of the conducting heroes of the LP era, but he recorded only six Beethoven symphonies with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Nos.1, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 9). At various other times between 1947 and 1967 he recorded four symphonies with other orchestras (Nos.3, 4, 6 and 8), but you still couldn’t assemble a complete set because there doesn’t seem to be a recording of No.2, a piece Munch conducted with the BSO on only one occasion. In Boston he never programmed a full Beethoven symphony cycle. Various overtures appeared on Munch’s programmes with some frequency, but the suite from Beethoven’s ballet The Creatures of Prometheus on this disc is a rarity, because he conducted it at the BSO in only one season — four performances in all. The ballet was a success for Beethoven at first; there were sixteen performances in its initial season. But the choreographer and his work passed from fashion, and most of the music descended into oblivion except for the overture, which has always been a concert-hall staple. Munch chose to supplement this with two additional movements that are less often heard (Beethoven wrote sixteen movements in all). The elegant Andante quasi allegretto served as a showcase for several of his celebrated BSO principal players — flautist Doriot Anthony Dwyer, cellist Samuel Mayes, bassoonist Sherman Walt, and harpist Bernard Zighera (this is the only music Beethoven ever composed for harp). Munch encourages his soloists without ever interfering with them. The jubilant theme of the finale is music that Beethoven returned to on two occasions: in a set of variations for solo piano with a concluding fugue (op.35) and, of course, the finale of the ‘Eroica’ Symphony. Munch seems to enjoy all the dodgy opera buffa departures from the more familiar versions of the music. He gives the Fourth Symphony a trim, fiery performance that is a lot of fun. His control of the transition between the first movement’s Adagio introduction, so full of strange portent, and the main Allegro vivace, is superbly imaginative, and the whole thing takes wing without ever turning beaty and bangy. The scherzo is both gracious and exciting, and the finale is exhilarating — Walt handles the famously tricky bassoon lick with élan. Munch led the iconic Fifth Symphony with the BSO on thirty-four occasions, but only thirteen of them were in Boston or at Tanglewood — it was a favourite choice for touring. This blazing performance from Sanders Theatre at Harvard University in 1959 still sounds as exciting as the demonstrative audience found it then. It offers a superb display of virtuosity on the podium and on the platform. Munch conducts with the freedom of a top-flight soloist because he knows the orchestra can and will deliver anything he asks for. Flexible tempos but unfaltering rhythm and forward momentum characterise his approach. He is able to redirect rather than sap the flow of energy in the quiet music, which maintains extraordinary weight and density. And when the climaxes come, they are thrilling not only in and of themselves but also because they have been prepared, not anticipated — and the effect is one of spontaneous combustion. Munch’s involvement is palpable, and you can hear him growl before launching the final triumph. What we take away from watching him is the sheer contagious pleasure he takes in the music and in the very act of conducting. By controlling the music, he sets it free. 4 5
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Boston Symphony Orchestra Charles Munch - International ...

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