21. 1. 2021 • Michaela Vostřelová
Semyon Bychkov is half way through his five-year term as the Artistic Director of the Czech Philharmonic. He says that he has never experienced such hard times with any of his previous orchestras. Besides cancelled concerts, postponed recording plans and cautious outlook for the future, there are still composers who write new music for the Czech Philharmonic. And this was the main focus of our interview.
Read article17. 4. 2020 • Colin Clarke
The very heart of European thought is reciprocity, so how heart-warming it was to welcome the idea of members of the Czech Philharmonic coming here to London to work with students at the Royal Academy of Music for several days in early March before Academy students were due to jet off to Prague to play Smetana’s Má vlast, as part of the Prague Spring International Music Festival.
Read article10. 1. 2020 • Boris Klepal
Since the fantastic success of his opera South Pole in Munich, Miroslav Srnka has undoubtedly become the most familiar face of the Czech contemporary music scene. Our interview, however, deals not so much with media fame as with the consequences it has had for the rest of his life. This is related to Srnka’s collaboration with the Czech Philharmonic, his shift from the privacy of composing into public life, and how the specifics of his situation influence solutions to compositional problems and creative questions in general.
Read article18. 10. 2019 • Alena Sojková
The chief conductor and artistic director of the Czech Philharmonic Semyon Bychkov has thrown himself energetically into his second season in Prague. After the opening programme including Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony, in October there will be three performances of Smetana’s Má vlast (My Homeland) as part of Subscription Series B. Performing this iconic work in the course of a season is unusual, but Semyon Bychkov has reasons for doing so. The interview that follows will cover this and other questions.
Read article30. 9. 2019 • Ondřej Čížek
You enter the time machine and let it take you to the distant as well as recent past. You find yourself in the musical heart of Prague and meet the fabulous conductor Leonard Bernstein. You experience his excellent rise in the years 1946 and 1947 and his magnificent return in June 1990. This all in the presence of the Czech Philharmonic. It is a fascinating story full of healthy nostalgia, musical brilliance, diverse emotions, and details and moments which will (perhaps) never occur again. Enjoy it.
Read article2. 3. 2018 • Jana Orlová
They play music all day, and when they want to relax in their spare time, they... play music. This is a common feature of chamber ensembles of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, which since the summer of 2017 have been presented to the general public in Suk Hall of the Rudolfinum.
Read article27. 10. 2017 •
"But you know, ladies and gentlemen, after this kind of appeal, after this kind of introduction, after everything that I lived with these people on stage where there were moments of such indescribable beauty on that stage that you say to yourself how beautiful it is to be alive and to receive it. And when that appeal comes to you, there is no other choice but to accept gratefully and try to imagine how you can make sure that the world always recognises this Orchestra as a treasure."From the speech of Semyon Bychkov
Read article24. 5. 2017 • Dina Šnejdarová
When the conductor Semyon Bychkov was asked to record the complete symphonic works of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky with the Czech Philharmonic for the Decca label, he did not take too long to think it over. The orchestra’s unique sound and the modesty of its players sparked a desire for collaboration in this great expert on Tchaikovsky’s music.
Read article27. 3. 2017 • Dina Šnejdarová
Manfred Honeck brings light to the Lenten season with the optimism of Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 and of W. A. Mozart’s Symphony No. 33, complementing the colorful lyricism of Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs sung by the great German soprano Christiane Karg. The concerts have become, among other things, an opportunity for Maestro Honeck’s personal retrospection on his tenure so far as Principal Guest Conductor, which reached its apex last season.
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