Czech Philharmonic • Semyon Bychkov
One man calls obsession with music a prerequisite for a conducting career, while the other calls his relationship with music the most important thing in his life. Semyon Bychkov and Behzod Abduraimov tackle a piano concerto so fiendishly difficult that Sergei Rachmaninov joked he had written it for an elephant.
Programme
Bedřich Smetana
Overture, Furiant, and Dance of the Comedians from the opera The Bartered Bride (15')
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 (39')
— Intermission —
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 (35')
Performers
Behzod Abduraimov
piano
Described by The Times as the “master of all he surveys” and with The Washington Post noting to “keep your ear on this one”, Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov’s captivating performances continue to receive international praise. At just 18 years of age, he won the prestigious London International Piano Competition and has since performed with leading orchestras around the world (the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bamberg and Vienna Symphony Orchestras, and others). In recent seasons, he has also collaborated with many prominent conductors, including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Manfred Honeck, Vasily Petrenko, Constantinos Carydis, Edward Gardner, Long Yu, Juraj Valčuha, and others. In the fall of 2022, he performed with the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov in Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini – he even recorded this piece in 2020 on the composer’s own piano from Villa Senar in Switzerland for Sony Classical.
The 2025/2026 season, Behzod Abduraimov made a number of notable debuts, including with the New York Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., in both cases under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda. Other concert appearances included the Houston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Hong Kong Philharmonic. In terms of recitals, the highlight of the season were his fourth appearance at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium (he made his debut there in 2015), a return to Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, and other performances in the United States and Europe. In the past, he has performed in many prestigious international recital series organized by the Alte Oper Frankfurt, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, La Società dei Concerti di Milano, and Toppan Hall in Tokyo. He also regularly performs at leading international festivals, including Aspen, La Roque Antheron, Lucerne, Ravello, Rheingau, and Verbier. In September 2025, he opened the Georgian Tsinandali Festival with Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1.
Abduraimov’s recordings are highly acclaimed – his 2012 debut recital CD featuring works by Liszt, Saint-Saëns, and Prokofiev won the prestigious French Choc de Classica and Diapason Découverte awards. He also pays special attention to promoting Uzbek music – on his latest album, Shadows of My Ancestors, released in 2024, he presented, among other things, the work of Uzbek composer Dilorom Saidaminova.
Born in Tashkent in 1990 Behzod began to play the piano at the age of five. He was a pupil of Tamara Popovich at the Uspensky State Central Lyceum in Tashkent and studied with Stanislav Ioudenitch at the International Center for Music at Park University, Kansas City, where he is now Artist in Residence and passes on his experience to younger generations of pianists.
Semyon Bychkov Chief Conductor
Czech Philharmonic
Student Programme
Dates and tickets
Dress rehearsal
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According to Semyon Bychkov, a conductor must be obsessed with music. Bychkov satisfied that criterion at an early age, when Sergei Rachmaninoff was one of his obsessive preoccupations. He did not yet realise how closely the works of the Russian composer would be linked to his own life.
At the age of 20, Bychkov won the conducting competition bearing the composer’s name, and when he was denied the prize—conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic—he decided to leave the Soviet Union permanently. So it was that in 1975 he arrived in New York with 50 dollars in his pocket and with just a single contact: the niece of Sergei Rachmaninoff. He was welcomed with open arms, and today among his possessions are his beloved composer’s briefcase and some of his scores.
Pianist Behzod Abduraimov calls his relationship with music the most important thing in his life. At the age of eight, when he did not feel like practising, his mother suggested that he could give up the instrument completely. “At first, I thought: is it this easy? I was happy for a few hours and then I realised I felt empty, even at such a young age! My attraction to music was much stronger than the fear of practising. What I want to say is that the realisation of being born with music came very early.”
Critics worldwide have hailed Abduraimov as a naturally gifted musician, with some describing him as a performer audiences “should keep their eyes on” and others praising his playing for his “magical touch”.
At the Rudolfinum the Uzbek native will play Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, which so fiendishly difficult the composer joked he had written it for an elephant. He dedicated the work to the Polish pianist Josef Hofmann, but Hoffmann was unable to play it, having hands that were too small. Rachmaninoff surely did not suffer from that problem, having fingers that could reach notes a foot apart at the interval of a twelfth. There is another anecdote about the concerto connected with the piano virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz, who played Rachmaninoff’s music frequently. Finding himself bored during a hospital stay, he began counting the notes, but he lost count at the end of the first movement.
Abduraimov calls Rachmaninoff’s concerto a concert symphony of 29,600 notes. And he has the music at his fingertips (literally and figuratively).