Semyon Bychkov extends his contract with Czech Philharmonic
The Russian-born American conductor Semyon Bychkov, who has served as music director and the chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra since 2018. In September, his contract was extended for another five years.
Mr. Bychkov was born in the then Leningrad but after facing anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union moved to the United States in his early 20s.
Since then he has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, such as the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, the London Symphony Orchestra or the New York Philharmonic, and appeared at a number of the greatest venues around the globe.
Semyon Bychkov succeeded the late Jiří Bělohlávek in heading the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. In doing so, he became the fourth foreign conductor since 1989 to take over the country's largest orchestra, after the German Gerd Albrecht, the Russian-Icelandic pianist, composer and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Israeli conductor Eliahu Inbal.
Over the past five years, Semyon Bychkov has recorded the complete symphonic works of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky with the Czech orchestra and has begun recording the symphonies of Gustav Mahler. The orchestra has performed on prestigious stages, including Carnegie Hall in New York and Suntory Hall in Tokyo.
In today's Sunday Music Show, we are going to listen to their recording of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings.
