Chosen as Gramophone’s 2024 ‘Orchestra of the Year’, this season the Czech Philharmonic will be a guest in the most prestigious halls across East Asia – Taiwan, Japan and South Korea – as well as major cities in Germany, Italy, Austria, Luxembourg and Belgium. In the Czech Republic, the orchestra appears at its home, the Rudolfinum in Prague, at festivals including Prague Spring, Dvořák Prague and Smetana Litomyšl, as well as at international festivals such as Grafenegg, George Enescu and Bad Kissingen.

The Czech Philharmonic and its Chief Conductor and Music Director, Semyon Bychkov, launch the 130th season in Prague with two programmes that feature composers who have been particularly significant throughout Bychkov’s career: Tchaikovsky, with whom he initiated his tenure with the Czech Philharmonic; and Shostakovich, whose 50th anniversary is being commemorated across the world. Both programmes also feature works for piano: Ravel’s Piano Concerto and Strauss’ Burleske.

The Czech Philharmonic’s programmes with Bychkov this season feature Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella and The Rite of Spring, Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and concertos by Elgar, Brahms and Bryce Dessner, the 130th season’s Composer-in-Residence. In November, Bychkov will conduct Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the 130th season Artist-in-Residence, Evgeny Kissin. Kissin will also give a solo recital as part of his residency.

2024 was the Year of Czech Music and the bicentenary of Bedřich Smetana, commemorated by the Czech Philharmonic and Bychkov with a new recording of Má vlast on PENTATONE. This recording, recently nominated for a 2025 BBC Music Magazine Award, was followed by the release of Dvořák’s Symphonies Nos. 7, 8 and 9, and the culmination of the Year of Czech Music in New York with a three-day residency at Carnegie Hall. In its review of the concerts, The New York Times described the Czech Philharmonic as “a timeless treasure… and an excellent steward for its country’s musical heritage.” In 2025, the orchestra celebrates the 150th anniversary of Vltava – the iconic second poem of Má vlast – with performances in Prague and East Asia.

The two Principal Guest Conductors of the Czech Philharmonic, Sir Simon Rattle and Jakub Hrůša, both conduct the orchestra this season. In December, Rattle leads the Czech Philharmonic and the women of the Prague Philharmonic Choir in music by Debussy, Messiaen and Mahler, as well as a programme of works by Berlioz, Lutosławski and Beethoven with the Czech Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (CPYO). In September, PENTATONE release Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances conducted by Rattle, and with Jakub Hrůša continue their exploration of music by Josef Suk. Hrůša will also conduct music by Sibelius, Britten and the Czech premiere of Dessner’s St. Carolyn by the Sea for two electric guitars.

Each year the CPYO collaborates with a conductor appearing with the Czech Philharmonic and this season, in addition to Rattle, they will also work on Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 with Giovanni Antonini. Antonini is of course just one of the many guest conductors invited by the Czech Philharmonic during its 130th season. Audiences can also look forward to the return of Dalia Stasevska, Sir Antonio Pappano, Cristian Măcelaru, David Robertson, Petr Popelka, and Thomas Adès, who conducts a programme in honour of Pierre Boulez’s 100th birthday. The 2025 Velvet Revolution concerts, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’ with the Prague Philharmonic Choir, will be conducted by Zubin Mehta.

In addition to Artist-in-Residence Evgeny Kissin, soloists featured this season include Mao Fujita, Barbara Hannigan, Amihai Grosz, Fleur Barron and Anastasia Kobekina, who are appearing with the Czech Philharmonic for the first time in Prague, and home-grown and international artists Magdalena Kožená, Josef Špaček, Seong-Jin Cho, Víkingur Ólafsson, Augustin Hadelich, Sol Gabetta and Nicola Benedetti, who return to the orchestra.

The Czech Philharmonic’s extraordinary and proud history reflects both its location at the very heart of Europe and the Czech Republic’s turbulent political history. Throughout the orchestra’s history, two features have remained at its core: its championing of Czech composers and its belief in music’s power to change lives. From as early as the 1920s, Václav Talich pioneered concerts for workers, young people and voluntary organisations, a philosophy which remains equally vibrant today. Alongside the CPYO, Orchestral Academy and the Jiří Bělohlávek Prize for young musicians, a comprehensive education strategy engages with more than 400 schools and an inspirational music and song programme led by singer Ida Kelarová for the extensive Romany communities has helped many socially excluded families to find a voice.

An early champion of the music of Martinů and Janáček, the Czech Philharmonic’s first concert in 1896 was an all-Dvořák programme conducted by the composer himself. Works by Czech composers – both established and new – remain the orchestra’s lifeblood. At the start of his tenure in 2018, Semyon Bychkov initiated the commissioning of works from fourteen Czech and international composers including Detlev Glanert, Julian Anderson, Thomas Larcher, Bryce Dessner and Thierry Escaich. Equally recognised for its special relationship with the music of Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Mahler – who conducted the world premiere of his Symphony No. 7 with the orchestra in 1908 – the Czech Philharmonic and Bychkov are currently mid-way through a Mahler cycle. The cycle – the orchestra’s first complete new recording of the symphonies since Václav Neumann’s more than 40 years ago – will be released by PENTATONE as a box set in spring 2026.

source: Česká filharmonie

V sezoně 2023/2024 dirigoval Semjon Byčkov Českou filharmonii nejen v pražském Rudolfinu – s dvořákovskými programy zavítal do Koreje a Japonska, kde hned třikrát vystoupila ve slavné tokijské Suntory Hall, na jaře pak vedl orchestr na velkém evropském turné. V prosinci vyvrcholí Rok české hudby 2024 třemi společnými koncerty v Carnegie Hall v New Yorku.

Mezi významné společné počiny Semjona Byčkova a České filharmonie patří dokončení kompletu sedmi CD věnovaných Čajkovského symfonickému repertoáru a série mezinárodních rezidencí. Vedle hudby Antonína Dvořáka se Semjon Byčkov s Českou filharmonií zaměřil na hudbu Gustava Mahlera v rámci mahlerovského cyklu vydavatelství Pentatone; v roce 2022 vydali symfonie č. 4 a 5, o rok později následovaly symfonie č. 1 a 2. V roce 2024 se soustředili na nahrávání české hudby – vyšla CD s Mou vlastí Bedřicha Smetany a posledními třemi symfoniemi Antonína Dvořáka.

Koncertní i operní repertoár Semjona Byčkova zahrnuje hudbu čtyř století a nevyhýbá se ani současné tvorbě. Během své první sezony v České filharmonii objednal 14 nových kompozic, které filharmonici postupně premiérují a jejichž uvádění se chopila i řada orchestrů v Evropě a Spojených státech amerických.

Jeho vyhledávaná vystoupení jsou jedinečnou kombinací vrozené muzikálnosti a vlivu přísné ruské pedagogiky. Kromě toho, že hostuje u významných světových orchestrů a v operních domech, je Byčkov držitelem čestných titulů u londýnského BBC Symphony Orchestra – s nímž se každoročně objevuje na BBC Proms – a Royal Academy of Music, která mu v roce 2022 udělila čestný doktorát. Byčkov byl dvakrát vyhlášen „Dirigentem roku“ – v roce 2015 v rámci International Opera Awards a v roce 2022 serverem Musical America.

Semjon Byčkov spolupracoval na rozsáhlých nahrávacích projektech pro společnost Philips s Berlínskými filharmoniky, Symfonickým orchestrem Bavorského rozhlasu, Královským orchestrem Concertgebouw, orchestrem Philharmonia, Londýnskou filharmonií a Orchestre de Paris.

Byčkov stojí jednou nohou pevně v kultuře Východu a druhou na Západě. Narodil se v roce 1952 v Leningradě (dnes Petrohrad) a studoval na Leningradské konzervatoři u legendárního Ilji Musina. Jako dvacetiletý zvítězil v Rachmaninově dirigentské soutěži. Poté, co mu byla odepřena výhra – možnost dirigovat Leningradskou filharmonii – Byčkov ze Sovětského svazu odešel. V roce 1975 emigroval do Spojených států amerických a od poloviny 80. let žije v Evropě. V roce 1989, kdy byl také jmenován hudebním ředitelem Orchestre de Paris, se Byčkov vrátil do bývalého Sovětského svazu jako hlavní hostující dirigent Petrohradské filharmonie. Byl jmenován šéfdirigentem Symfonického orchestru Západoněmeckého rozhlasu (1997) a šéfdirigentem Drážďanské Semperoper (1998).

zdroj: Česká filharmonie

foto © Petra Hajská

Already in his childhood, the cellist Václav Petr won a number of prizes at international music competitions including Concertino Praga, the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation Competition, Prague Junior Note, Talents for Europe, and the International Cello Competition in Liezen, Austria. He is a graduate of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and he furthered his education at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. He has also taken part at many masterclasses in Kronberg, Hamburg, Vaduz, and Baden-Baden, and he has participated at the European Academy of Music in Bonn. He has been appearing as a soloist for twenty years with important Czech and foreign orchestras. Since 2013 he has been the principal cellist of the Czech Philharmonic. He also performs chamber music: since 2009 he has been a member of the Josef Suk Piano Quartet, with which he won first prize in a competition of chamber ensembles in Val Tidone, Italy, and at one of the most prestigious competitions for chamber ensembles with piano, Premio Trio di Trieste. He plays a cello from the workshop of the master instrument maker Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (1757).

The Rudolfinum is one of the most important Neo-Renaissance edifices in the Czech Republic. In its conception as a multi-purpose cultural centre it was quite unique in Europe at the time of its construction. Based on a joint design by two outstanding Czech architects, Josef Zítek and Josef Schultz, a magnificent building was erected serving for concerts, as a gallery, and as a museum. The grand opening on 7 February 1885 was attended by Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria, in whose honour the structure was named. In 1896 the very first concert of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra took place in the Rudolfinum's main concert hall, under the baton of the composer Antonín Dvořák whose name was later bestowed on the hall.