Following an extraordinary performance of Britten’s War Requiem in London, Semyon Bychkov is now in California where he will conduct Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, before reprising the War Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
Of the dozen live performances I have heard on three continents of Britten’s magnificent War Requiem, Saturday night’s San Francisco Symphony presentation was not only among the “best,” but also something apart from all previous experience.
San Francisco Classical Voice, 30 November 2013
It may not have been Remembrance Day here but Bychkov’s San Francisco offering of this work should long be remembered. Elegantly shaped, scrupulously detailed, powerfully paced, alternatively languid and propulsive, fervent and pragmatic – Bychkov made this an unforgettable Event with a capital E.
Seen and Heard International, 30 November 2013
The triumph of Wednesday’s War Requiem at Davies Symphony Hall… lay in its heartbreaking poise across 85 minutes, maintaining that delicate and dignified sense of seeking after peace, the elusive ideal. [ ] Bychkov drew these forces through the advancing drama, even at tempos so slow that time practically seemed to stop, mimicking eternity.
San Jose Mercury News, 29 November 2013
Guest conductor Bychkov brought a jaw-dropping eloquence to this 85-minute opus, letting it breathe generously, adding rubato, and a thousand touches of refined dynamics from inaudible to overpowering.
Artssf.com, 29 November 2013
When it’s done right, Britten’s War Requiem is a work of wrenching emotional power and philosophical profundity. Wednesday’s performance by the San Francisco Symphony – the first of only two marking the composer’s centennial – was more than right; it was sensational.
San Francisco Chronicle, 28 November 2013
Semyon Bychkov conducted this score with impeccable clarity, allowing each of the work’s many diverse components to reveal itself with its own unique rhetoric, resulting in a complex of “voices” ranging from depictions of battle at its most brutal to the stillness of eternal rest around which the entire Mass text is structured.
Examiner.com, 28 November 2013
Yet this Requiem was Bychkov’s triumph. As a celebration of Britten’s 100th birthday, it was a magnificent achievement. As a meditation on humanity and the devastation of war, it was one for the ages.
MusicalAmerica.com, 29 November 2013
Bychkov’s conducting has a wonderful sense of line and structure. You know where you are going from the moment he gives his first cue. His reading was clearly thought out and sustained – the best in my experience.
The Guardian, 13 November 2013
Last night’s under the special circumstances of Remembrance Sunday wasn’t just good: it hit the heights and plumbed the depths, with no weak link in any of the soloists, choirs, orchestra or instrumental soloists… here from the first string phrases, there was a master’s shaping hand at work.
The Arts Desk, 11 November 2013
Semyon Bychkov inhabits War Requiem in a similar way to its creator and this Royal Albert Hall performance was altogether remarkable… One of the greatest performances of anything to come my way in forty years of concert-going… it was intimate, thrilling, ecstatic, spiritually transporting and unusually precatory. Being there was key. Something extraordinary happened here.
Classicalsource.com, 11 November 2013
At no point was this a spot lit performance, and great credit should go to Bychkov for attending to the text with great reverence, conducting with humility.
Good Morning Britten, 11 November 2013