Charles Munch - Tapa dura

meticulous and sympathetic (David Matthews, Times Literary Supplement)

Holoman writes with enormous sensitivity ... he is especially articulate in connecting Munch's elusive and enigmatic personal life to a noticeably more extroverted approach to music making ... Holoman's admirably elegant interrogation of the dichotomy of Munch's on- and off-stage personality is sympathetically handled and proves to be both insightful and informative. (Michael Quinn, Classical Music Magazine)

A book such as this has been needed for quite a while ... I enjoyed this book very much ... This book is very strongly recommended: it is a masterly study. (Robert Matthew-Walker, Musical Opinion)

this is a fascinating book, supplemented by an invaluable online discography (BBC Music Magazine)

Not only does Holoman weave the events of Munch's life into an interesting, elegantly written narrative, he penetrates the man's psychology (no easy task for one so reclusive and private) and shows us how that impacted on his performances ... I cannot recommend it too highly. (John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune)

Holoman, a professor of music and conductor at the University of California Davis, provides not just a colorful and warmly affectionate account of the life and career of le beau Charles, but also brings context to the major institutional changes that took place during his tenure, a pivotal period in American orchestral life. (Jeremy Eichler, The Boston Globe)

A mesmerizing figure in concert, Charles Munch was celebrated for his electrifying public performances. He was a pioneer in many arenas of classical music―establishing Berlioz in the canon, perfecting the orchestral work of Debussy and Ravel, and leading the world to Roussel, Honegger, and Dutilleux. A pivotal figure, his accomplishments put him on a par with Arturo Toscanini and Leonard Bernstein.

In Charles Munch, D. Kern Holoman provides the first full biography of this giant of twentieth-century music, tracing his dramatic survival in occupied Paris, his triumphant arrival at the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and his later years, when he was a leading cultural figure in the United States, a man known and admired by Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. He turned to conducting only in middle age, after two decades as a violinist and concertmaster, a background which gave him special insight into the relationship between conductor and orchestra. At the podium, his bond with his musicians unleashed something in them and in himself. "A certain magic took wing that amounts to the very essence of music in concert," the author writes, as if "public performance loosed the facets of character and artistry and poetry otherwise muffled by his timidity and simple disinclination to say much." In concert, Munch was arresting, even seductive, sweeping his baton in an enormous arch from above his head down to his knee. Yet as Holoman shows, he remained a lonely, even sad figure, a widower with no children, a man who fled admirers and avoided reporters.
With groundbreaking research and sensitive, lyrical writing, Holoman penetrates the enigma to capture this elusive musical titan.