On April 23rd BBC Music Magazine announced the winners of its 2025 Awards, presenting the Orchestral Award to the Czech Philharmonic’s recording of Smetana’s Má vlast conducted by Chief Conductor and Music Director, Semyon Bychkov and recorded in January 2021 during lockdown. The release of Má vlast – timed to coincide with the bicentenary of Smetana’s birth (2nd March 1824) – was the Orchestra’s first significant statement in 2024’s Year of Czech Music, a major international celebration of Czech music held every 10 years since 1924. 2024’s Year of Czech Music culminated in three concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall and the streaming of three poems from Má vlast: Vseryhrad, Vltava and Šárka which reached an international audience of 6.9 million.
Few works enjoy a more distinguished discography than Má vlast, the crowning glory of Smetana’s orchestral output. Rafael Kubelík alone made five commercial recordings, his last with the Czech Philharmonic for whom this music is practically the Bible. Semyon Bychkov began immersing himself in Má vlast not long after being appointed the orchestra’s music director in 2018, but has waited until now to record the cycle of six tone poems, with the release timed for Smetana’s bicentenary . . . it has to be said that there is nothing banal about Bychkov’s meticulously mapped performances and that his attention to detail never stifles the music’s spontaneity. . . In sum an enriching Má vlast up there with the other indisputably great performances. BBC Music Magazine, April 2024
To watch Semyon Bychkov’s acceptance speech please head to: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Aho7cPTZg/