Universal’s ‘Virtuoso’ series has just re-released Semyon Bychkov’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Recorded in Berlin in 1986, The Nutcracker was one of a series of recordings that Bychkov made with the Berliner Philharmoniker, which include Shostakovich Symphony Nos. 5 (winner of the Belgian Caecilia Award & Stereo Review Record of the Year 1987), 8 and 11.
Earlier this year, Bychkov’s recording of Le cygne (Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals) with Misha Maisky was released on an album of Cello Encores. In 2011 Bychkov’s recording of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana recorded with the Orchestre de Paris and soloists Jessye Norman, Giusseppe Giacomini and Dmitri Hvorostovsky was also re-released on the Virtuoso label.
Bychkov is currently in the United States to conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony. He will conduct Britten’s War Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall in London to commemorate Armistice Day on Sunday 10 November.
“Under Mr Bychkov’s direction, the performance [Shostakovich Symphony No. 11 with New York Philharmonic] sizzled – the cellos simmering and taut at the opening, the frantic climax unfolding with breathtaking force.”
The New York Times, 19 October 2013