A few comments:
1. The Munch telecasts were not produced by PBS. PBS did not exist during
Munch's lifetime.
2. They were produced by WGBH, which still has the rights.
3. It's because of WGBH's rights that not many have been issued. WGBH has an
unrealistic idea of their pecuniary value.
4. The VAI series may well be at an end.
5. Another party (my lips are sealed) is negotiating to pick up where VAI
left off.
6. Said party, whom I have known for several years, is a HUGE Munch fan. If
all works out, expect to see a large number of Munch titles, more than a
dozen.
7. The Munch Beethoven 7th videotape survives, I believe. I add that caution
because I have not watched the tape. Of course, I saw the broadcast as a
teenager, but who knows what is on the videotape or if it is playable.
Videotapes from that era are subject to many types of failures.
I have an inventory of the videotapes, made in 1975. On it is this entry:
Cond: Munch
Tape # S-032-58
Roussel: Suite in F
Piston: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra
Joseph de Pasquale, soloist
Beethoven: Symphony no. 7 in A, op. 92
Timings: Roussel: 16:22; Piston: no timing; Beethoven: 33:14
I do have a copy of Don's aural aircheck, but I do not have the time to
check these timings against it. Don, perhaps you can check if the timing of
the Beethoven matches your aircheck.
It's one of life's ironies and ambiguities that I had complete access to all
of the videotapes for several years. However, they were made on 2" Hi-Band
Quad tapes. I had no way of playing them and thus could not transfer them.
Later, I worked for a company that was also in the television broadcast
business and had many such machines, but by then I had left the BSTT and had
no access.
For many years these tapes and kinescopes were badly stored at a university
library in Boston. They were for some time just stacked under the well of a
staircase. They have not been preserved in other media, except as has been
necessary in the VAI process, and in a few projects associated with the
Pompidou Center in France.
8. A stereo recording exists of the Beethoven 7th with Munch and the BSO.
From Tanglewood, August 6, 1961. Fabulous sound and a typical Munch
performance.
9. When Munch was born, he was a German subject. Alsace had been
re-conquered by Germany in the Franco-Prussian war. Remember that Alsace had
originally been German (H.R.E.) and had been seized by the French during the
1600s. If Munch had not served on the German side during the Great War, he
would rightly have been considered a traitor. His rank was Feldwebel. Munch
lived and worked in Germany after the war, as Concert Master of the Leipzig
Gewandhaus under Furtwängler and Walter. When the Nazi's were in or near
power, he voted with his feet and moved to France. The fact that he married
an heiress to the Nestle fortune may have aided him in this decision making
process. Her fortune enabled him to launch his career as a conductor.
Reminds one of Koussevitzky.
10. Regarding the umlaut; he used it after the war and while guest
conducting in America. When he came to Boston, he dropped it. The
pronunciation in Boston was Charles Munch, not "Sharl Muench." After the
Boston period, the umlaut came back.
11. Munch hated the Nazis and was most unsympathetic to Nazi collaborators
and/or Party Members. The following story was told to me by Richard Kaye:
When Karajan was on tour with the Berlin Philharmonic, Munch gave strict
instructions that he was not to see or have anything to do with Karajan.
Unfortunately, when Munch was walking through the Hall, he accidentally came
into sight of Karajan, who was also walking through the Hall, with a group.
Those with Munch gasped, fearing a scene. However, to their amazement, Munch
broke out into a beatific smile and then ran towards Karajan, with his arms
outstretched.
...and he ran slightly past Karajan, hugged a man standing near to Karajan
and they broke out into animated, joyous German conversation.
The man had been in the Leipzig orchestra with Munch. They had not seen each
other for decades. They walked off and discussed old times, laughing and
smiling.
Karajan was totally ignored, as if he didn't exist.
--
Kevin Mostyn
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my real e-mail address is my first name at my last name dot com
<***@aol.com> wrote in message news:deb61d99-3429-48a5-85c0-***@25g2000hsx.googlegroups.com...
<big snip>
You remember that "Collector's Item" Munch program? Wow. And yes,
that was/is me. Many thanks.
I'd love to see that PBS telecast of the Munch/BSO Beethoven 7th
again, so like you I'd love to see it show up on VAI some day.
Although it's been many years, I can still vivdly see Munch conducting
the end of the finale's coda with what amounted to huge horizontal
figure eights above his head: no vertical beats to speak of -- and the
trumpets came in a bit early. No problem. It comes to a shattering
close. What is most impressive as one listens to the audio portion of
the telecast is the unerring cumulative rhythmic grip of it all. (A
major part of the symphony of course, although by no means all of it.)
And Munch seems to have been among the relatively few number of
conductors who obeyed Beethoven's markings that the third movement
should be "presto" and the finale "allegro con brio": implying that
the fourth movement should be slower than the third. Munch did that.
What's more, he pulled it off.
Don Tait