The life of Charles Munch mirrors the changing face of Europe during the half-century from 1890 to 1940. A brilliant concert violinist, he became one of the greatest French conductors of his era - first in Paris in the 1930s and 1940s and then, after the War, in the United States, where he was chief conductor of the Boston Symphony in succession to Serge Koussevitsky from 1949-1962. On his retirement from Boston, he returned to Europe where he founded the Orchestre de Paris. Munch’s repertoire was very wide, ranging from the established classical repertoire to world premieres of new music, but it was upon French music that his international reputation was founded. In this rare selection of music by his compatriots, we can hear for ourselves the truth of that claim. The three composers represented - Debussy, Ravel and Roussel - were contemporaries of each other and of Munch himself, which gives his interpretations a unique insight. The sound has been refurbished brilliantly.

Despite the depth of Munch’s devotion to French music during the 78rpm and long-playing eras, the three works in the compilation on this download are very rare in his discography – with those by Ravel and Roussel making their first appearance under Munch. Taken ‘on the wing’ as it were, they exhibit his artistry at its best: at times, and especially in the Debussy, these performances demonstrate a stirring sense of rhythmic élan allied to a wondrously effective sense of internal orchestral balance – that of colouration, done so remarkably that few conductors have matched Munch’s demonstrably Impressionistic use of the orchestra: clarity where called for, yet otherwise an effusion of tone-painting in sound. These qualities suit the works by Roussel and Debussy particularly, but in Ravel’s jewel-like ‘Tombeau de Couperin’, Munch’s delightful sense of rhythmic detail is equally in evidence. Robert Matthew-Walker