The ceremonial opening of the season will begin in the spirit of opera, commemorating the great works of Bedřich Smetana and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, but the focal point of the programme will be Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony. For Dmitri Shostakovich, who was constantly criticised by the Soviet regime for a lack of optimism, the Second World War a
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Bedřich Smetana
The Bartered Bride, overture to the opera
Bedřich Smetana
Polka, Furiant, Skočná, dances from the opera The Bartered Bride
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, letter scene from Act I of the opera
Dmitri Shostakovich
Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 65
Elena Stikhina
soprano
Semyon Bychkov
conductor
Czech Philharmonic
The ceremonial opening of the season will begin in the spirit of opera, commemorating the great works of Bedřich Smetana and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, but the focal point of the programme will be Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony. For Dmitri Shostakovich, who was constantly criticised by the Soviet regime for a lack of optimism, the Second World War amounted to a certain kind of artistic refuge: “Then the war came, and sorrow became something usual. We were able to speak about it, to weep openly for those whom we had lost. People ceased to be afraid of tears. Before the war, there was perhaps not a single family that had not lost someone – a father, brother, or dear friend. Everyone had someone to weep for, but they had to do so quietly, under their blankets, where no one could see them. Everybody was afraid of everybody else, and we were oppressed and smothered by sorrow. I, too, was suffocating. I had to write about it. I had to write a Requiem for all those who had died, who had suffered. I had to describe the terrible machinery of extermination and protest against it. The Seventh Symphony and Eighth Symphony are my Requiem. I feel boundless sorrow for those who were killed by Hitler, but my sorrow is no less great for those killed at Stalin’s orders. I suffer for everyone who was tortured, shot, or starved to death. There had been millions of these victims before the war with Hitler even began. The war brought many new sorrows and new devastation, but at the same time I did not forget about the horrors of the pre-war years. That is what my symphonies are about, including the Eighth.”
Semyon Bychkov conductor
In recognition of the 2024 Year of Czech Music – a major celebration of Czech music celebrated across the Czech Republic every 10 years since 1924 – Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov has put the music of Antonín Dvořák at the centre of his programmes with the Czech Philharmonic throughout the 2023–2024 season. In addition to conducting three programmes devoted to Dvořák in Prague, Bychkov and the Orchestra will tour the Dvořák programmes to South Korea, Japan, Spain, Austria, Germany, Belgium and the United States, as well as recording the last three symphonies for Pentatone.
Semyon Bychkovʼs tenure at the Czech Philharmonic began in 2018 with concerts in Prague, London, New York, and Washington commemorating the 100th anniversary of Czechoslovak independence. Following the culmination of The Tchaikovsky Project, Bychkov and the Orchestra began their focus on Mahler. The first discs in a new Mahler cycle were released by Pentatone in 2022, with Symphony No. 5 chosen by The Sunday Times as its Best Classical Album.
Bychkovʼs repertoire spans four centuries. His highly anticipated performances are a unique combination of innate musicality and rigorous Russian pedagogy. In addition to guest engagements with the world’s major orchestras and opera houses, Bychkov holds honorary titles with the BBC Symphony Orchestra – with whom he appears annually at the BBC Proms – and the Royal Academy of Music, who recently awarded him an Honorary Doctorate. Bychkov was named “Conductor of the Year” by the International Opera Awards in 2015 and, by Musical America in 2022.
Bychkov began recording in 1986 and released discs with the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio, Royal Concertgebouw, Philharmonia Orchestra and London Philharmonic for Philips. Subsequently a series of benchmark recordings with WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne featured Brahms, Mahler, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Strauss, Verdi, Glanert and Höller. Bychkov’s 1993 recording of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin with the Orchestre de Paris continues to win awards, most recently the Gramophone Collection 2021; Wagner’s Lohengrin was BBC Music Magazine’s Record of the Year (2010); and Schmidt’s Symphony No. 2 with the Vienna Philharmonic was BBC Music Magazine’s Record of the Month (2018).
In common with the Czech Philharmonic, Bychkov has one foot firmly in the culture of the East and the other in the West. Born in St Petersburg in 1952, he studied at the Leningrad Conservatory with the legendary Ilya Musin. Denied his prize of conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic, Bychkov emigrated to the United States in 1975 and, has lived in Europe since the mid-1980’s. In 1989, the same year he was named Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris, Bychkov returned to the former Soviet Union as the St Petersburg Philharmonic’s Principal Guest Conductor. He was appointed Chief Conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra (1997) and Chief Conductor of Dresden Semperoper (1998).
Elena Stichina soprano
