Programme
Bedrich Smetana
Bartered Bride (overture + dances)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Eugene Onegin (Letter scene)
Dmitri Shostakovich
Symphony No. 8
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BBC Proms London • Czech Philharmonic
Returning to the BBC Proms for the first time since 2014, the Czech Philharmonic under Chief Conductor and Music Director, Semyon Bychkov, will open its programme with the Overture and Three Dances from Smetana's The Bartered Bride before playing The Letter Scene from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin with soprano Elena Stikhina. The performance conclude
Duration of the programme 2 hours
Performers
Semyon Bychkov
conductor
Elena Stikhina
soprano
London — Royal Albert Hall
The BBC Prom follows hot on the heels of the opening of the Czech Philharmonic's 124th season at Prague's Rudolfinum and Decca Classics’ release of The Tchaikovsky Project boxset which began in 2012, and culminates with residencies in Prague, Tokyo, Vienna and Paris in the autumn.
Bychkov's first year with the Czech Philharmonic marked the 100th anniversary of Czechoslovak Independence with concerts in London, New York, Washington and Vienna, and extensive tours of the US and Germany. The London concert presented in collaboration with the Embassy of the Czech Republic in London was the catalyst for an on-going education project with the Royal Academy of Music starting in spring 2020. This season, in addition to the Tchaikovsky residencies, Bychkov and the Orchestra will give concerts in Taiwan, Moscow and Nanking, where they will initiate the first of an ongoing season of cultural and educational exchanges. In Prague, the subscription series opens with Smetana's Má vlast and, during the season, alongside works by Beethoven, Mahler and Brahms, Bychkov will introduce works by Berio, Glanert and Dutilleux.
The Czech Philharmonic launch their year of Beethoven anniversary concerts on 1 January 2020 with Co-Principal Guest Conductor Jakub Hrůša conducting Symphony No. 7. The series continues with symphonies conducted by Bychkov,
David Robertson, Giovanni Antonini, Manfred Honeck and Co-Principal Guest Conductor Tomáš Netopil. Rudolf Buchbinder will join the Orchestra for the five piano concertos. Jakub Hrůša – with whom the Orchestra launches a Josef Suk recording cycle in the New Year - also initiates a series of operas in concert, opening with Janáček's Kát'a Kabanová in Prague and Hamburg.
Elsewhere in the season, Peter Eötvös will conduct Miroslav Srnka's Moves 1 & 3 alongside his own Jet Stream; David Robertson introduces Steve Reich's Music for Ensemble and Orchestra; and James Gaffigan conducts Jiří Teml's The Labyrinth of Memory, the second of the Czech Philharmonic's nine commissions from Czech composers.
