A enchanting determine in live performance, Charles Munch used to be celebrated for his electrifying public performances. He was once a pioneer in lots of arenas of classical music--establishing Berlioz within the canon, perfecting the orchestral paintings of Debussy and Ravel, and prime the area to Roussel, Honegger, and Dutilleux. A pivotal determine, his accomplishments placed him on a par with Arturo Toscanini and Leonard Bernstein.

In Charles Munch, D. Kern Holoman offers the 1st complete biography of this immense of twentieth-century tune, tracing his dramatic survival in occupied Paris, his successful arrival on the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and his later years, while he was once a number one cultural determine within the usa, a guy identified and favourite via Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. He became to carrying out purely in heart age, after twenty years as a violinist and concertmaster, a history which gave him designated perception into the connection among conductor and orchestra. on the podium, his bond together with his musicians unleashed whatever in them and in himself. "A yes magic took wing that quantities to the very essence of song in concert," the writer writes, as though "public functionality loosed the features of personality and artistry and poetry in a different way muffled by means of his timidity and easy disinclination to assert much." In live performance, Munch was once arresting, even seductive, sweeping his baton in an incredible arch from above his head right down to his knee. but as Holoman indicates, he remained a lonely, even unhappy determine, a widower without young children, a guy who fled admirers and kept away from reporters.

With groundbreaking study and delicate, lyrical writing, Charles Munch penetrates the enigma to trap this elusive musical titan.