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
Bychkov’s tenure as Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic – Gramophone’s Orchestra of the Year 2024 – was initiated with concerts in Prague, London, New York, and Washington celebrating the 100th anniversary of Czechoslovak independence. The following year marked the culmination of The Tchaikovsky Project: concerts, residencies and recordings of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies with the Orchestra both at home and on tour. For 2024’s Year of Czech Music, Czech composers were given pride of place and, in addition to recordings of Smetana’s Má vlast – voted by BBC Music Magazine as Orchestral Recording of the Year 2025 – and Dvorak’s Symphonies 7, 8 and 9, Czech music was at the centre of extensive European tours and concerts in the US, including three concerts at Carnegie Hall. This season, as well as subscription concerts in Prague, Bychkov will tour with the Orchestra to Taiwan, Japan. Korea, Austria, Italy, Germany, Luxemburg, Sweden and Finland and, in Spring 2026, PENTATONE will release the complete cycle of Mahler symphonies recorded with the Orchestra over the past 8 seasons.
CONCERT SCHEDULE
October 2025
PRAGUE, CZECHIA – CZECH PHILHARMONIC – R. STRAUSS, SHOSTAKOVICH
PRAGUE, CZECHIA – CZECH PHILHARMONIC – R. STRAUSS, SHOSTAKOVICH
PRAGUE, CZECHIA – CZECH PHILHARMONIC – R. STRAUSS, SHOSTAKOVICH
TAIPEI, TAIWAN – CZECH PHILHARMONIC – SMETANA
TAIPEI, TAIWAN – CZECH PHILHARMONIC – RAVEL, SHOSTAKOVICH
NEWS
Semyon Bychkov on tour in Asia with Czech Philharmonic
Starting in Taipei on October 14, Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic will embark on an extensive tour in Asia, with concerts in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. In addition to complete performances of Smetana’s Má Vlast in each country, repertoire for the tour...
Bychkov returns to Bayreuth Festival to conduct Tristan und Isolde
There was orchestral luxury down in the pit, where Semyon Bychkov conducts a slow and spacious performance with the music sinking into a velvety cushion of rich sonorities. . . his slow-burn Wagner pays off and was wonderfully well played, earning him an ovation....
Prague Spring Closing Concert
This year, Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic will give both the opening and closing concerts of the Prague Spring International Festival, currently celebrating its 80th anniversary. Since the inaugural Festival in 1946, the Festival has always opened with a...
FEATURED VIDEO
FEATURED ALBUM
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.
