Milan Munclinger


Milan Munclinger was a significant Czech flautist, conductor, composer and musical scientist.

Biography

Munclinger was the son of Josef Munclinger, an operatic bass and opera-stage manager at the National Theater Prague. His mother was an actress at the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava.
After graduation at the Prague Conservatory in 1948, Munclinger studied conducting and composition at Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. In 1952 he also graduated in musical science, aesthetic, philosophy and oriental studies at Charles University.

Editor and translator

Since 1946 he devoted himself to Baroque music. For the first time ever he translated Arnold Dolmetsch's The Interpretation of the Music of the 17th and 18th Centuries Revealed by Contemporary Evidence and several other major HIP works into Czech.
He discovered and edited a large number of archive compositions. He also participated in Musica Antiqua Bohemica series – his František Benda and Franz Xaver Richter flute concerti recording from 1955 was awarded Grand Prix du Disque.
In 1951 he founded the ensemble Ars Rediviva whose performances and recordings played an important role in the revival of Baroque music in Czechoslovakia.

Other activities

He also occupied himself by jazz improvisation and premiered compositions of modern composers, a number of new works were written for him. He conducted orchestras as well as ensembles focused on early music.
He was a co-founder of the Czechoslovak Musical Youth and of the Czech Society for Early Music.
Since the 1970s he taught the performance and study of old music at the Conservatoire in Prague.

Collaboration with Jean-Pierre Rampal

With his teacher and friend Jean-Pierre Rampal he collaborated from 1951 till his death in 1986. He was a juror at music performers' competitions and lecturer at performance courses in Bayreuth and Nice. He dedicated to Rampal e.g. his reconstructions of Bach's concerts BWV 1055, 1056 and 1059.
Rampal wrote about Munclinger in his book Musique, ma vie and dedicated to him his C. P. Bach performances.