“As Semyon Bychkov takes his leave of the WDR Symphony Orchestra after nearly a decade and a half, he discusses his final project with the Cologne-based band whose fortunes he has transformed – an award-winning recording of Lohengrin. ‘The only reason to do it is...
Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger, June 2010 “Nach 13 Jahren als Chefdirigent des WDR-Sinfonieorchesters verlässt Semyon Bychkov Köln. Es ist ein Abschied voller Stolz. Ein Gespräch über Jahre mit vielen Höhepunkten, neue Aufgaben und die Uniformität der Musik. Herr Bychkov, 13...
“The conductor Semyon Bychkov, 56, was born in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) in the last months of Stalin’s rule and emigrated to the US in 1975. His appointments have included music director of the Orchestra de Paris, principal guest conductor of the Maggio Musicale...
Classical Source, Mansel Stimpson, September 2009 “As his website attests, Semyon Bychkov’s life is one rich in incident. To win a major conducting competition, the Rachmaninov, by the age of twenty one would be sufficient in itself to mark out his early life as...
Diapason, June 2007 “Comment est née votre affection pour la France? ‘C’est le pre-mier pays européen à m’avoir accueilli si chaleureusement. En 1983, j’ai dirigé Casse-Noisette de Tchaikovski à l’Opéra de Lyon ; l’année suivante, j’étais au Festival d’Aix-en-Provence...
The Daily Telegraph, November 2006 “It’s 6.30pm in a restaurant in Covent Garden, London, and the waitress has been waiting some time for the excitable, slightly jowly man with the black eyes and dark curly hair sitting opposite me to say whether he likes the wine....