Czech Philharmonic • Evgeny Kissin

Evgeny Kissin’s musicality, the depth and poetry of his interpretations, and his extraordinary virtuosity have won him respect and admiration, which he deserves as one of the most talented classical pianists of his generation. He is in demand internationally, and he has appeared as a soloist with the world’s top orchestras under the baton of such famed conductors as Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, and Seiji Ozawa.

Evgeny Kissin was born to a Russian Jewish family in Moscow, and he began playing piano and improvising at the age of two. At six years of age, he began studying at a Moscow school of music for talented children named after its founders, the Gnessin sisters. It was there that Anna Pavlovna Kantor became his only teacher. At age ten he appeared with an orchestra for the first time, and a year later he gave a solo recital. As a 12-year-old boy, he won international fame when a recording of his appearance with the Moscow State Philharmonic was issued on LP. That recording’s tremendous success led to the release of five more live recordings of Kissin’s performances over the next two years. Evgeny Kissin first appeared abroad in 1985, and over the following years he gave many tours and concerts all around the world. December 1988 saw the worldwide broadcast of Kissin’s appearance at the Berlin Philharmonic’s New Year’s concert under the baton of Herbert von Karajan.

Evgeny Kissin’s career has earned him many musical honours around the world. In 1991, for example, he was a special guest at the Grammy Awards Ceremony. Three years later, he became the youngest person honoured as the Instrumentalist of the Year by the magazine Musical America. He has received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the Manhattan School of Music, the Shostakovich Award (one of Russia’s highest honours for musicians), an honorary membership of London’s Royal Academy of Music, and most recently the title of Doctor of Letters honoris causa from the University of Hong Kong.

He is a citizen of the United Kingdom and of Israel as well as of Russia. He has been living in Prague since 2017. His is a vocal critic of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.

In addition to conducting at Prague’s Rudolfinum, Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic in the 2023/2024 season, took the all Dvořák programmes to Korea and across Japan with three concerts at Tokyo’s famed Suntory Hall. In spring, an extensive European tour took the programmes to Spain, Austria, Germany, Belgium, and France and, at the end of year 2024, the Year of Czech Music culminated with three concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York. 

Among the significant joint achievements of Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic is the release of a 7-CD box set devoted to Tchaikovsky’s symphonic repertoire and a series of international residencies. In 2024, Semjon Byčkov with the Czech Philharmonic concentrated on recording Czech music – a CD was released with Bedřich Smetanaʼs My Homeland and Antonín Dvořákʼs last three symphonies and ouvertures.

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 awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in July 2022. 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).

Semyon 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).

Pro anglického skladatele Edwarda Elgaraznamenala skladba nazvaná původně Variations on an Original Theme – název Enigma (Hádanka) byl připojen později – tvůrčí zlom; tehdy se konečně kompozičně prosadil. Věnování znělo „mým v ní portrétovaným přátelům“, jednalo se tedy také o skladbu s autobiografickým podtextem. Až na jedinou výjimku jsou všechny hádanky rozluštěny.

Základní téma přinesla náhoda, když si Elgarova manželka přála, aby zopakoval melodii, kterou od něj zaslechla – jedna verze říká, že ji hrál na klavír, jiná, že si ji pískal při příchodu domů. Manželčiny iniciály C. A. E. – Caroline Alice Elgar – se tedy pochopitelně objevily u první variace. V dalších vystupují Elgarovi přátelé a známí. Písmena H. D. S.-P. patří amatérskému klavíristovi Hewu Davidu Stewart-Powellovi (charakterizován je prostou diatonikou), Richard Baxter Townshend (R. B. T.) byl nadšený divadelní ochotník (jakási teatrální póza je patrná), William Meath Baker (W. M. B) rád leccos organizoval, někdy trochu zbrkle, Richard Arnold (R. P. A.) prý do všeho rád mluvil. „Ysobel“ – Isabell Fitton – hrála amatérsky, poněkud těžkopádně na violu. Arthur Troyte Griffith (Troyte) byl hudbymilovný architekt z Malvernu ve Worcestershiru, kde Elgarovi žili. Pod iniciálami W. N. je skryta vzpomínka na sekretářku tamní Filharmonické společnosti Winifred Norbury.

Název variace „Nimrod“ je slovní hříčka, označuje pracovníka londýnského nakladatelství Novello Augusta Johannese Jaegera (Jäger – německy lovec; označení „nimrodi“ dalo lovcům ztotožnění s mýtickým panovníkem Nimrodem, „božím střelcem“). Citát z Beethovenovy Patetické sonáty je vzpomínkou na společnou procházku, při níž Jaeger rozprávěl o Beethovenových pomalých větách. „Dorabella“ byla Dora Penny, dcera rektora z Wolverhamptonu; její „pseudonym“ si skladatel vypůjčil z Mozartovy opery Così fan tutte. George Robertson Sinclair (G. R. S.) byl varhaník katedrály v Herefordu, kde Elgarovi žili v letech 1904–1911, ve variaci se objevuje i varhaníkův pes. Violoncellista Basil Nevinson (B. G. N.) dal jméno další variaci. Variace označená třemi hvězdičkami portrétuje Lady Mary Lygon, která tehdy byla na zámořské cestě a proto se zde objevuje citát z Mendelssohnovy skladby Klidné moře a šťastná plavba. A konečně finální E. D. U. je skladatel sám. Celou skladbou podle jeho slov prochází ještě společné „téma“, které se však neobjeví v tónech; řešení této hádanky si autor nechal pro sebe. Premiéru skladby 19. června 1899 ve St. James Hall v Londýně řídil Hans Richter.