SEMYON BYCHKOV
Chief Conductor & Music Director – Czech Philharmonic
Otto Klemperer Chair of Conducting – Royal Academy of Music
Günter Wand Conducting Chair – BBC Symphony Orchestra
BIOGRAPHY
For 2024’s Year of Czech Music, Semyon Bychkov’s programmes centred on Dvorak’s last three symphonies, the concertos for piano, violin and cello, and the trilogy of overtures “Nature, Life and Love”. In addition to conducting in Prague’s Rudolfinum, Bychkov and the Orchestra took the all-Dvořák programmes to Korea and across Japan with three concerts in Tokyo’s famed Suntory Hall. Later, in spring, an extensive European tour took the programmes to Spain, Austria, Germany, Belgium, and France and, at the end of 2024, the Year of Czech Music culminated with three concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall. As well as featuring Dvorak’s three concertos, the programmes included three poems from Smetana’s Ma vlast, Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 and Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass for which the Orchestra was joined by the Prague Philharmonic Choir. Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic launched 2024’s Year of Czech Music with the release – on Smetana’s 200th birthday – of Smetana’s Má vlast.
CONCERT SCHEDULE
CONCERT SCHEDULE
NEWS
50 years ago
50 years ago to the day I left Russia in search of freedom. I was able to take my music scores with me, amongst which were creations of Shostakovich. How symbolic it is then that the 5th Symphony of Shostakovich is featured on the program of tonight’s concert at...
Mahler No. 3 on Pentatone
The Czech Philharmonic’s Mahler cycle, conducted by Chief Conductor and Music Director, Semyon Bychkov, continues in March with the release of Mahler Symphony No. 3 with mezzo-soprano, Catriona Morrison and the Women of the Prague Philharmonic Choir. Symphony No. 3...
Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic European Tour
No music for Semyon Bychkov is more essential or closer to the bone than Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. In January 1974 it was the work that he chose for his exam at the Leningrad Conservatory and, in January 1985 the piece he chose for his debut with the Berlin...
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Mahler: Symphony No. 3
Pentatone releases Mahler’s Symphony No. 3
The Czech Philharmonic’s Mahler cycle, conducted by Chief Conductor and Music Director, Semyon Bychkov, continues in with the release of Mahler Symphony No. 3 with mezzo-soprano, Catriona Morrison and the Women of the Prague Philharmonic Choir. Symphony No. 3 marks the fifth release in the cycle. The Czech Philharmonic’s Mahler cycle for PENTATONE launched in 2022 with the release of Mahler Symphony No. 4 and, subsequently Symphonies Nos. 5, 2 and 1.
