Recordings

Folk Songs

The CD Folk Songs by Magdalena Kožená and the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of conductor Simon Rattle brings together folk-inspired song cycles from across the globe. You can listen to pieces by Berio, Bartók, Ravel or Montsalvatge. The album, released under the Pentatone label, presents a cross-section of twentieth-century orchestral song composition.

Czech Philharmonic – Magdalena Kožená, Simon Rattle

• Record label: PENTATONE
• Release date: 13 October 2023
• Format: CD

G. Mahler: Symphony No. 2

The Czech Philharmonic presents Mahler's Symphony No.2, the third CD in the Mahler cycle, produced in cooperation with the Pentatone label. The orchestra, under the direction of chief conductor and music director Semyon Bychkov, is joined by soprano Christiane Karg and violist Elisabeth Kulman, accompanied by the Prague Philharmonic Choir.

Already released recordings of both the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies have been enthusiastically received by critics and audiences alike. We dare say that Symphony No. 2, nicknamed "Resurrection", will meet the same fate. At least the first published reviews suggest so.

Czech Philharmonic – Semyon Bychkov

• Record label: PENTATONE
• Release date: 7 April 2023
• Format: CD

G. Mahler: Symphpony No. 4

More than four decades after Neumann’s complete set, chief conductor Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic will offer a new look at the musical, emotional, and expressive power of Mahler’s symphonic works. The first taste of Mahler’s “polyphony of life” will the Fourth Symphony, in which an important part is played not only by varied instrumental colours, but also by the human voice, and specifically by the soprano voice of the Israeli singer Chen Reiss.

Czech Philharmonic – Semyon Bychkov
Chen Reiss

• Record label: PENTATONE
• Release date: 8 April 2022
• Format: CD

The Tchaikovsky Project boxset

The Czech Philharmonic's first major undertaking with now Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov – The Tchaikovsky Project – echieved its illustrious culmination in 2019. 

Over the past seasons, since the project’s inception in 2015, the orchestra and conductor have been delving into exhaustive exploration of Tchaikovsky’s music. The first two recordings in the project, released on Decca in 2016 and 2017, have received wide critical acclaim and the year 2019 saw a series of Tchaikovsky residences in Tokyo, Vienna and Paris as well as at home in Prague. In August that year, Decca Classics released the complete boxset for The Tchaikovsky Project: all of the composer’s symphonies, the three piano concertos with soloist Kirill Gerstein, Romeo & Juliet, Serenade for Strings and Francesca da Rimini. 

• Release date: 30 August 2019
• Format: 7 CDs & digital audio – mp3, flac (96K/24-bit sound)

Web of the project

B. Martinů: What Men Live By

One of the most important events in classical music this autumn will be the release of a recording of Bohuslav Martinů’s pastoral opera What Men Live By, wonderfully performed by Jiří Bělohlávek with the Czech Philharmonic and a whole host of important soloists. The world premiere recording will be released by Supraphon both on CD and in digital formats on 19th October 2018.

Bohuslav Martinů based the libretto for his pastoral opera on an English translation of Leo Tolstoy’s story Where Love Is, There God Is Also (1885). Instead of the original title referring to the Gregorian hymn Ubi caritas, Martinů chose the more universal title of a different Tolstoy story, What Men Live By. The opera was first heard in 1954 at the summer music course in Interlochen (Michigan). In 1955 the BBC considered producing the opera for television, but the idea did not come to fruition. This autumn at the Golden Prague International Television Festival, audiences finally got to see the premiere of a television version directed by Jiří Nekvasil.

Jiří Bělohlávek’s re­cording with the Czech Philharmonic is the first professional recording of this moving one-act opera by Bohuslav Martinů, and it may help the work regain the notice of opera companies. What Men Live By will be released together with Martinů’s Symphony No. 1, recorded in January 2016.

• Record label: Supraphon
• Release date: 19 October 2018
• Format: CD & digital audio – mp3, flac

B. Smetana: Má vlast

The iconic piece of Czech music, Bedřich Smetana's cycle of symphonic poems 'Má vlast', was recorded live by Jiří Bělohlávek and the Czech Philharmonic at concerts of the Prague Spring Festival. It is released as a part of the Bělohlávek: the last recordings series.

Czech Philharmonic – Jiří Bělohlávek
Recorded at the Municipal House in May 2014.

• Record label: Decca Classics
• Release date: 5 January 2018
• Format: CD & digital audio – mp3, flac

P. I. Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony

The Tchaikovsky Project continues with the programmatic Manfred Symphony, an unfairly neglected piece that the composer wrote after Lord Byron's dramatic poem between his 4th and 5th symphony.

Czech Philharmonic – Semyon Bychkov
Recorded at the Rudolfinum in April 2017.

• Record label: Decca Classics
• Release date: 25 August 2016
• Format: CD & digital audio – mp3, flac

P. I. Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 & Romeo and Juliet

First part of the extensive Tchaikovsky recording project, in which the orchestra under the baton of Maestro Semyon Bychkov focused on the Romeo and Juliet overture, as well as Symphony No. 6 "Pathétique", one of the most powerful symphonic pieces ever written.

Czech Philharmonic – Semyon Bychkov
Recorded at the Rudolfinum in 2015-16.

• Record label: Decca Classics
• Release date: 14 October 2016
• Format: CD & digital audio – mp3, flac

A. Dvořák: Symphonies

A box of five DVDs contains live recordings of performances of all nine symphonies by Antonín Dvořák. The complete set includes introductory remarks by Jiří Bělohlávek and Marek Eben between the individual movements of each symphony and also the documentary Nine Sketches of Antonín Dvořák by the director Barbara Willis Sweete.

Czech Philharmonic – Jiří Bělohlávek
Recorded 2012-14 at the Rudolfinum

• Release date: 2016
• Format: DVD

A. Dvořák, J. Suk, L. Janáček: Violin Concertos

An album presents contemporary interpretations of three masterpieces. Suk’s Fantasia in G Minor op. 24, Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A Minor op. 53 and Leoš Janáček’s violin concerto titled “The Wandering of a Little Soul”.

Josef Špaček / violin
Czech Philharmonic – Jiří Bělohlávek

• Release date: 2015
• Format: CD & digital audio – mp3, flac