Spotlight – Listen – Reviews Verdi has always been close to my heart,’ says Semyon Bychkov. ‘I grew up in Leningrad, where there are three opera houses, including the least-known one that is part of the Conservatory. All three had La Traviata in their repertoire, and...
Spotlight – Listen – See in Concert – Reviews ‘Wagner’s operas are the closest music to Buddhism that I know,’ says Semyon Bychkov. He goes on to explain: ‘It is in a permanent state of unfolding. Yes, of course, there is a moment when it starts – but only because it...
Spotlight – Listen – See in Concert – Reviews ‘I was born later than Shostakovich, so I did not live through the years of mass terror in the Soviet Union as he did,’ says Semyon Bychkov. ‘But nevertheless I understand the way of life he experienced and identify with...
Spotlight – Listen – Review Rachmaninov was one of Semyon Bychkov’s idols from childhood. ;I played his piano music, I read everything I could find on him, including his letters. It was an obsession. And then I found myself at the Leningrad Conservatory, the youngest...
Spotlight – Listen – See in Concert – Review Semyon Bychkov sees Strauss as a man who lived in two very different worlds. ‘He was born into one and died in another. He witnessed several collapses of Europe, the last of which the destruction of Germany was what he took...
