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
Marking his fifth season as Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic in 2022-23, Semyon Bychkov’s season started in Prague with the official concert to mark the Czech Republic’s Presidency of the EU and continued at the Dvořák Prague International Music Festival with concert performances of Dvořák’s Rusalka, later conducting the work a new production of the work at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
In recent seasons, the focus of Bychkov’s work with the Czech Philharmonic has turned to the music of Gustav Mahler with performances of the symphonies at its home in Prague, on tour and ultimately on disc. Performances during the season feature Mahler symphonies at the Edinburgh International Festival, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Mahler Festival, and in Paris, Luxembourg, Graz, Vienna, Budapest and Milan. PENTATONE’s complete Mahler cycle with Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic launched in 2022 with Mahler’s Symphony Nos. 4 and has subsequently seen the release of Symphony No. 5 and Symphony No. 2.
CONCERT SCHEDULE
CONCERT SCHEDULE
NEWS
MAHLER’S FIRST SYMPHONY ON PENTATONE
Today, Semyon Bychkov with the Czech Philharmonic continue their acclaimed Mahler cycle with the composer’s First Symphony, one of the most evocative and colourful symphonic debuts in the history of the genre. Released internationally by PENTATONE this will be the...
Semyon Bychkov: “Russia has been kidnapped by an army of ‘zombies’ whom I call ‘Putinoids'”
From El Pais, by Javier Salas The Jewish-born conductor who performs 'Tristan and Isolde' at the Teatro Real, recalls how he fled the USSR in the 1970s and the reprisals experienced by his family. As a great Jew, Semyon Bychkov (St. Petersburg, 70) considers himself...
2023/24 – 128TH CZECH PHILHARMONIC SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT
The innate musicality of the Czech people could not fail but to give birth to a vast legacy of musical creations that, in turn, need interpreters to bring them to life. Whatever the complexities of the world, there will always be a place for music that speaks...
FEATURED VIDEO
FEATURED ALBUM
Mahler: Symphony No. 2
Personal Contemplation on Overcoming Death
After critically-acclaimed recordings of Mahler’s Fourth and Fifth Symphony, the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov continue their Pentatone Mahler cycle with a rendition of the composer’s Second, nicknamed “The Resurrection”. They are joined by soprano Christiane Karg, alto Elisabeth Kulman and the Prague Philharmonic Choir. Starting with a funeral march, passing through the introspective alto song “Urlicht” and ending in choral bliss and euphoria, Mahler’s Second is a deeply spiritual and personal contemplation on the secret of life and the possibility of overcoming death. For Bychkov, the symphony “shows the life cycle in all its struggles: suffering, joy, irony, humour, love and doubt.”
