Czech Philharmonic • Karen Gomyo

The Czech Philharmonic does not play music by the American composer John Adams (*1947) very often. Until now, the orchestra has encountered his works only twice: in 2013, Jiří Bělohlávek programmed Short Ride in a Fast Machine for the New Year’s Concert, and in 2023 at the Prague Spring Festival, Adams himself led the orchestra in his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?) and the orchestral work I Still Dance. Among today’s composers, however, John Adams is undoubtedly one of the most successful. Experts often describe him as a successor to Steve Reich and Philip Glass, pioneers of Minimalist music who were about a decade his senior and whose music was based on the repetition and varied transformation of short musical motifs. The second characteristic often mentioned when describing Adams’s style is his distancing himself from serialism. That compositional procedure, which was predominant at the turn of the 1950s and ’60s, is based on the handling of a series of pitches given in advance, which the composer then assembles into larger units. Although the strict rules of serialism, later extended from the organization of pitch intervals to dynamics, timbre, and rhythm, lend compositions a sense of order, they also considerably limit composers. Already during his studies, Adams refused to let himself be bound by those limits and began seeking his own approach to composing and working with sound itself. He himself cites the book Silence by another renowned American composer and music theorist, John Cage, as one of his great sources of inspiration on this journey. Adams’s scores, however, also often draw inspiration from Bach, Stravinsky’s Neoclassicism, and the grand symphonic sound we know, for example, from Gustav Mahler.

The range of musical forms and genres to which John Adams has devoted himself is likewise remarkably broad. He has numerous chamber and symphonic works to his credit, and has also composed music for several films. His operas have been particularly successful, receiving regular performances at major opera houses in Europe and overseas. He often draws on historical events of the 20th century for his subject matter. His first opera, Nixon in China (1987), for example, was inspired by the American president’s visit to China, while The Death of Klinghoffer deals with the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985 and the killing of Leon Klinghoffer, a Jewish-American passenger. In 2005, his opera Doctor Atomic, about Robert Oppenheimer, premiered in San Francisco, and in 2022 his latest opera to date, Antony and Cleopatra, was also premiered there.

Adams wrote the one-movement composition Frenzy for his longtime friend, the conductor Simon Rattle, who first performed it with the London Symphony Orchestra in March 2024. It can be divided internally into three sections: the opening bars introduce two contrasting themes—a punchy, sharply articulated motif in the woodwinds and brass, and an urgent theme in the strings. Both ideas return throughout the composition, transformed in some way each time, yet remaining recognisable. Instead of a slow movement, the music simply becomes quiet. Density and force give way to lightness and transparency. The regular pulse remains, carried by two harps and celesta, as if passed back and forth between them in dialogue, while a lyrical melody in the strings arches above them. As the culmination approaches, the composition earns its name. Before the American premiere in 2025 in Los Angeles, Adams described it as follows: “The final section is indeed frenetic, with hard-driven, choppy string figures, tsunami-like waves of brass and madly scurrying woodwinds.”

The composer, conductor, and music teacher Max Bruch (1838–1920) always remained somewhat in the shadow of his contemporary Johannes Brahms. Among other things, he shared with Brahms a High Romantic compositional style that represented a more traditional counterpart to the modern musical language exemplified, for instance, by the works of Richard Wagner. At the same time, Bruch was an extraordinarily prolific and successful artist in his day. He composed a number orchestral works including three symphonies and two series of Swedish Dances, nearly twenty song cycles, six oratorios, and several large choral cantatas. He taught at Berlin’s prestigious Hochschule für Musik, and at the pinnacle of his career, between 1880 and 1883, he was the conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society.

In 1866, Bruch composed his Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, one of his best known and most frequently performed works. Otto von Königslöw gave its premiere, but the legendary violinist Joseph Joachim soon took up the concerto as well, and Bruch revised the work on the basis of Joachim’s comments. In the end, the concerto established itself in the repertoire alongside the great violin concertos of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. Joachim is said to have declared it “the musically richest and most seductive” of them all. And no wonder—all three movements captivate listeners with lovely melodies, drawing extensively on folk music, which Bruch loved all his life. The first movement is marked Vorspiel (prelude), and, as the title suggests, it actually serves as an introduction to the second movement, a slow Adagio. The Prelude begins as a lament for the solo violin, alternating with orchestral entrances, initially in piano, then becoming increasingly forceful. The music gradually moves from melancholy towards a more assertive Allegro, with virtuosic passages for the solo violin, but calm soon returns, as does the movement’s opening theme, as the movement is literally extinguished in a quiet conclusion. The Adagio follows attacca, bringing new musical motifs and melodies, with dialogues between the orchestra and soloist, who makes the instrument sing in both its lowest and highest registers. The optimistic, playful, and majestic arrival of the third movement then comes across like daybreak after nocturnal darkness. The finale, which also draws on rhythmically charged, Hungarian-inspired dance motifs, is a veritable showcase of virtuosic solo passages. The concerto as a whole is relatively short compared with other works of its kind, with each movement lasting approximately eight minutes. The variety of its musical ideas, together with the demands it places on the soloist’s technique, has nevertheless ensured it a lasting and well-deserved place in the violin repertoire to this day.

“Hartmann is boiling inside me, just as Boris did—the sounds and ideas are all around me; I devour them and can’t get my fill. I can barely write it all down fast enough.” wrote Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839–1881) in June 1874 to his friend Vladimir Stasov, a well-known Russian music and art critic. The composer was working on his piano cycle Pictures at an Exhibition immediately after finishing his opera Boris Godunov.

A visit to an exhibition of works by his prematurely deceased friend, the architect and artist Viktor Hartmann, provided Mussorgsky with the inspiration for one of the most famous examples of programmatic music. The event, which made a deep impression on him, was transformed by the composer into music in just twenty days. Mussorgsky also devised a distinctive way of conveying specific extramusical content to the listener. Instead of telling a continuous story, as Liszt and Smetana do in their symphonic poems, for example, the music leads the listener through an art gallery and conveys the impressions that the individual works made on the composer. The whole cycle is linked by the recurring Promenade, in which, according to Stassov, Mussorgsky portrayed himself “wandering through the exhibition, sometimes slowly, sometimes briskly, and sometimes sadly, as he remembers his late friend”.

Originally written for piano, Pictures at an Exhibition assumed its most familiar form through its orchestration by the French composer Maurice Ravel, who arranged it for large symphony orchestra on commission from the conductor Serge Koussevitzky, who performed it for the first time on 19 October 1922 in Paris. It is with the Promenade that the whole cycle opens. Ravel entrusts the very beginning to a solo trumpet, while the music’s Russian character is further underscored by the distinctive alternation between 5/4 and 6/4 time. Every time the Promenade returns, Ravel alters its orchestration, giving the same motif a slightly different colour and mood at each recurrence. Gnomus is a grotesque depiction of a dwarf hobbling clumsily on crooked legs. In Il vecchio castello (The Old Castle), a troubadour sings in front of a medieval castle; Ravel entrusts the melancholic song to an alto saxophone. Next, the listener arrives at at the Tuileries—a Parisian garden full of playing children and their nannies. Bydlo depicts a Polish ox-cart on enormous wheels. It is evoked by a heavy ostinato and a solo tuba that gradually grows in intensity and then fades, as if the cart were approaching, passing the listener, and disappearing into the distance. The Ballet of Unhatched Chicks in their Shells, inspired by Hartmann’s designs for a scene of the ballet Trilby, is a playful scherzo dominated by chirping flutes, pizzicato strings, and playful bassoon entrances. Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle is a satirical portrait of two men, one rich, the other poor, depicted as a dialogue between strings and winds with nervous-sounding trumpet entrances. The arguing women at the market in Limoges create a frantic commotion, then the mood shifts violently in the Catacombs, where Hartmann depicted himself in the underground passageways of Paris, lighting his way with a lantern. The brass and low woodwinds evoke an oppressive, even ominous atmosphere, which is dispelled in the second half of the movement, Cum mortuis in lingua mortua (With the Dead in a Dead Language). The Promenade theme returns here, this time as the spectre of Hartmann himself and an echo of his creative spirit. The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba Yaga) contrasts energetic passages in full orchestral sonority with ominous episodes at a mysteriously hushed dynamic for flutes, clarinets, and bassoons, punctuated by piercing interjections from the celesta, xylophone, and harp. Finally, the Great Gate of Kiev appears without interruption. Hartmann’s architectural design for a city gate in the Old Russian style, with a cupola shaped like a Slavic helmet, was never realised, but Mussorgsky and Ravel present it as a monumental musical edifice. The majestic main theme and deafening instrumentation, including cymbals and bells, bring the entire composition to a magnificent, festive conclusion.

Karen Gomyo, a violinist of Japanese descent, is one of the leading figures on the global music scene. She is celebrated for her ability to captivate audiences and forge a deep connection with them through her emotional and heartfelt performances. She was inspired to take up the violin by the violinist Midori, whom she heard perform at a concert in Montreal when she was five years old. A pivotal moment came four years later when she was given the opportunity to play in masterclasses led by the legendary pedagogue Dorothy DeLay—who subsequently invited her to study with her at Juilliard, where Karen Gomyo began her studies at the age of ten. Violinist Mauricio Fuks also played a very important role in her musical journey.

As a soloist, she has performed with numerous orchestras; in the 2025/2026 season, these included the New York Philharmonic, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan, the Residentie Orkest in The Hague, and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. She performed with the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, when concerts were held under restricted conditions. Most recently, she shone in the Czech Republic in the spring of 2025 during the season-closing concert of the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava; her performance of Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A minor under the baton of Gilbert Varga thrilled the audience.

Karen Gomyo is also active in the field of chamber music—she has performed with a wide range of artists, including mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, pianist Enrico Pace, violinist Daishin Kashimoto, cellist Julian Steckel, flutist Emmanuel Pahud, trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, and guitarist Ismo Eskelinen, with whom she recorded the duet album Carnival on BIS Records.

When she was fourteen, she first heard the music of Ástor Piazzolla, introduced to her by her mother. She was immediately captivated and remains a lover and performer of tango nuevo to this day. She has collaborated with Piazzolla’s longtime pianist and tango legend Pablo Ziegler, as well as bandoneon players Héctor del Curto, JP Joffre, and Marcelo Nisinman. In 2021, she released the album A Piazzolla Trilogy, which she recorded with the Strings of Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and guitarist Stephanie Jones.

Each season she features a work written by a living composer—these include, for example, the Violin Concerto Adrano by Samy Moussa, Concerto No. 2 Mar’eh by Matthias Pintscher, Xi Wang’s YEAR 2020: Concerto for Violin, Trumpet, and Orchestra, and Samuel Adams’ Chamber concerto—all of which she premiered with leading North American orchestras.

As a violinist, host, and narrator, Karen Gomyo also participated in a documentary film about Antonio Stradivari titled The Mysteries of the Supreme Violin, produced by Japan’s NHK television and broadcast worldwide on the NHK WORLD channel.

In 2018 Bychkovʼs tenure as Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic was initiated with concerts in Prague, London, New York, and Washington celebrating the 100th anniversary of Czechoslovak independence. 2019 marked the culmination of The Tchaikovsky Project: concerts, residencies and recordings of Tchaikovskyʼs symphonies. For 2024ʼs Year of Czech Music, in addition to recordings of Smetanaʼs Má vlast – voted by BBC Music Magazine as Orchestral Recording of the Year 2025 – and Dvořákʼs Symphonies 7, 8 and 9, Czech music was at the centre of extensive European tours as well as concerts in the US, including three concerts at Carnegie Hall. Earlier this season, Bychkov toured with the Orchestra to Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Austria, Italy, Germany and Luxembourg. In April 2026, PENTATONE released the box set of Mahler symphonies recorded with the Orchestra since 2018.

In the 2026/2027 season, Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic return to repertoire that has accompanied him since the beginning of his career. Alongside Czech music, he will focus above all on the works of Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Modest Mussorgsky. The programmes of the 131st season thus connect the music of his native country with the Czech tradition at the centre of his work in Prague.

He is a frequent guest with the leading international orchestras and opera companies and has recorded extensively including with the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio, Concertgebouworkest, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris. Benchmark recordings with WDR Cologne include the four Brahms Symphonies, in addition to works by Strauss, Mahler, Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff, Verdi, Glanert and Höller. His 1992 recording of Tchaikovskyʼs Eugene Onegin was the recommended recording for BBC Radio 3ʼs Building a Library (2020); Wagnerʼs Lohengrin was BBC Music Magazineʼs Record of the Year (2010); and Schmidtʼs Symphony No. 2 with the Vienna Philharmonic was BBC Music Magazineʼs 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 emigrated to the United States in 1975 and is now based in Europe. In 1989 Bychkov returned to the former Soviet Union as Principal Guest Conductor of the St Petersburg Philharmonic and, the same year, was named Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris. In 1997, he was appointed Chief Conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, and in 1998, Chief Conductor of the Dresden Semperoper. In summer 2025, Bychkov returned to Bayreuth to conduct Wagnerʼs Tristan und Isolde, and conducted the premiere of a new production of Tchaikovskyʼs Eugene Onegin at the Paris Opera in January 2026. In the 2026/2027 season he also returns to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London.

Bychkov was named ‘Conductor of the Yearʼ by the International Opera Awards (2015) and, by Musical America (2022). He holds honorary titles with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Academy of Music. From 1 August 2026, Bychkov is Music Director Designate of the Paris Opera, assuming the title of Music Director in 2028.