SEMYON BYCHKOV
Chief Conductor & Music Director – Czech Philharmonic
Otto Klemperer Chair of Conducting – Royal Academy of Music
Günter Wand Conducting Chair – BBC Symphony Orchestra
BIOGRAPHY
Marking his fifth season as Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic in 2022-23, Semyon Bychkov’s season started in Prague with the official concert to mark the Czech Republic’s Presidency of the EU and continued at the Dvořák Prague International Music Festival with concert performances of Dvořák’s Rusalka, later conducting the work a new production of the work at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
In recent seasons, the focus of Bychkov’s work with the Czech Philharmonic has turned to the music of Gustav Mahler with performances of the symphonies at its home in Prague, on tour and ultimately on disc. Performances during the season feature Mahler symphonies at the Edinburgh International Festival, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Mahler Festival, and in Paris, Luxembourg, Graz, Vienna, Budapest and Milan. PENTATONE’s complete Mahler cycle with Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic launched in 2022 with Mahler’s Symphony Nos. 4 and has subsequently seen the release of Symphony No. 5 and Symphony No. 2.
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NEWS
Shostakovich Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7 on Pentatone
No music is more essential to Semyon Bychkov, or closer to the bone, than Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. In November 2026, Pentatone will release Shostakovich’s Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7, performed by the Czech Philharmonic under the direction of its Chief Conductor...
Semyon Bychkov opens the Czech Philharmonic’s 131st season
Next month’s opening of the Czech Philharmonic’s season with Chief Conductor and Music Director, Semyon Bychkov, comes in the middle of guest engagements at four prestigious festivals: Stockholm’s Baltic Festival, the Helsinki Festival, the Lucerne Festival and...
Mahler No. 1-9 on Pentatone
The Czech Philharmonic’s complete Mahler Cycle under Bychkov has been released today. The Mahler symphonies have been central to Bychkov’s programming with the Czech Philharmonic since 2018 when he opened his tenure as Chief Conductor and Music Director with...
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Mahler: Symphony No. 2
Pentatone releases Mahler Symphony No. 2, together with maestro Semyon Bychkov and Czech Philharmonic, in April 2023.
Personal Contemplation on Overcoming Death
After critically-acclaimed recordings of Mahler’s Fourth and Fifth Symphony, the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov continue their Pentatone Mahler cycle with a rendition of the composer’s Second, nicknamed “The Resurrection”. They are joined by soprano Christiane Karg, alto Elisabeth Kulman and the Prague Philharmonic Choir. Starting with a funeral march, passing through the introspective alto song “Urlicht” and ending in choral bliss and euphoria, Mahler’s Second is a deeply spiritual and personal contemplation on the secret of life and the possibility of overcoming death. For Bychkov, the symphony “shows the life cycle in all its struggles: suffering, joy, irony, humour, love and doubt.”
