Programme
Bedřich Smetana
Má vlast (My Homeland), a cycle of symphonic poems
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Velvet Revolution Concert • Smetana: My Homeland
Czech Philharmonic organizes a special concert at the occasion of the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution on 17 November 1989. The Orchestra will perform Má vlast (My Homeland) by Bedřich Smetana under Chief Conductor Semyon Bychkov. The concert will be broadcasted on Czech TV and streamed on Facebook page of the orchestra.
Duration of the programme 1 hour 25 minutes
Performers
Semyon Bychkov conductor
Czech Philharmonic
Rudolfinum — Dvořák Hall
Tickets and contact information
Concert will be broadcasted on ČT art and streamed on facebook pages of the Czech Philharmonic and other partners.
Marking the commencement of an annual concert honouring the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution on 17 November 1989, the Czech Philharmonic will perform Má vlast (My Homeland) under Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov. Presented in Prague’s Rudolfinum on 17 November 2020, the concert will be broadcast live on Czech TV and streamed internationally on demand for 7 days via the Facebook pages of the Orchestra and Mezzo TV amongst others. Mezzo TV will additionally broadcast the concert in 2021.
Bedřich Smetana’s six symphonic poems have long been a potent symbol of the Czech Philharmonic’s extraordinary and proud history. The Orchestra gave its first full rendition of Má vlast in a brewery in Smíchov in 1901; in 1925 Má vlast was the work chosen by Chief Conductor Václav Talich for the Orchestra’s first live broadcast and, five years later, it was the first work that the Orchestra committed to disc. During the Nazi occupation, when Goebbels demanded that the Czech Philharmonic perform in Berlin and Dresden, Talich programmed Má vlast as an act of defiance; while in 1945 Kubelík conducted the work as a ‘concert of thanks’ for the newly liberated Czechoslovakia.
The Czech Philharmonic’s performance of Má vlast this November will mark 30 years since Rafael Kubelík’s legendary performance of the work in Prague’s Old-Town Square commemorating Czechoslovakia’s first free elections in June 1990.
Bychkov, who first conducted Má vlast with the Czech Philharmonic in October 2019, reflects on this historic moment: "To commemorate the Velvet Revolution by performing Má vlast would be unthinkable without remembering the man whose life was as much dedicated to Smetana’s creation as it was to his country and its music. Rafael Kubelίk led the Czech Philharmonic as its Principal Conductor from 1941 until 1948, before leaving his native country in protest against the regime: "I had lived through one form of bestial tyranny, Nazism... As a matter of principle I was not going to live through another."42 years later, following the Velvet Revolution and the country’s first free elections, Kubelík returned to his native land and beloved Czech Philharmonic to conduct Má vlast at the Prague Spring Festival, which he had inaugurated in 1946. Watching and hearing this performance on film became one of the most unforgettable moments in my life. Kubelík’s identification with this music, its own identification with the Czech nation and, the audience’s identification with both the music and its interpreters created a unity that one rarely has the privilege to experience. Our performance of Má vlast on 17 November is a homage to the Velvet Revolution, to a nation that treasures its freedom and, to Rafael Kubelík whose life remains a symbol of humanism.”
The Velvet Revolution concert is presented in collaboration with the Prague Spring International Music Festival whose 2020 Festival was programmed to have opened with the Czech Philharmonic performing Má vlast under Bychkov.
Performers
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).
