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Czech Philharmonic • Season Opening Concert


As a student, Semyon Bychkov became enthusiastic about Tchaikovsky, and the same thing happened to Seong-Jin Cho with Ravel. The first love affair led ultimately to a recording Tchaikovsky’s complete symphonies, while the Korean pianist’s performing of music by Ravel led none other than Simon Rattle to call him a “poet at the piano”. We hope that both combinations will bring success in our jubilee 130th concert season.

Programme

Maurice Ravel
Piano Concerto in G major 

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 

Performers

Seong-Jin Cho piano 

Semyon Bychkov conductor 
Czech Philharmonic

Photo illustrating the event Czech Philharmonic • Season Opening Concert

Rudolfinum — Dvořák Hall

“I have loved Tchaikovsky’s music as long as I can remember. As is usual with first loves, that feeling has never died.”

– Semyon Bychkov

 

Semyon Bychkov fell in love with Tchaikovsky already as a student. With the Czech Philharmonic, he recorded the composer’s complete major orchestral works for the Decca Classics label in 2019. About that project, he says: “My instinct told me this was the place where I wanted to do that because it is a Slavic orchestra, very close to the spirit of Russian music. For example, there is a close affinity between Dvořák’s music and Tchaikovsky’s. At the same time, however, this orchestra does not suffer from the cliches that Russian musicians are born with.”

Bychkov has studied the man and his music in detail, and that knowledge is the basis of his interpretations: “The pianist Sapelnikov said that Tchaikovsky did not have even the least desire to posture. He was sincerity itself. When reading the accounts of others who knew him well, a multifaceted personality emerges. On the one hand, he was an unbelievably joyous person who deeply loved the company of others, was very kind, and loved life. Then on the other hand, there is a lonely man filled with anxieties. Our interpretation must correspond to that. It isn’t just about playing beautiful notes.”

Seong-Jin Cho also engages in detailed study of works and of the composers themselves. Already as a student, the Korean pianist was dreaming of performing Ravel’s complete piano works one day. “I think Ravel was a perfectionist, a brilliant mind with very clear ideas. At the same time, we hear an incredible amount of colours in his compositions—even his piano music often has an orchestral sound. Ravel’s music also has a very emotional effect on me. I imagine a person with a gentle smile, but with tears in his eyes.”

Performers

Seong-Jin Cho  piano

With an innate musicality and overwhelming talent, Seong-Jin Cho has established himself worldwide as one of the leading pianists of his generation and most distinctive artists on the current music scene. His thoughtful and poetic, assertive and tender, virtuosic and colourful playing can combine panache with purity and is driven by an impressive natural sense of balance.

Seong-Jin Cho was brought to the world’s attention in 2015 when he won First Prize at the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw, and his career has rapidly ascended since. In January 2016, he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. An artist high in demand, Cho works with the world's most prestigious orchestras including Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, New York Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra. Conductors he regularly collaborates with include Myung-Whun Chung, Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andris Nelsons, Gianandrea Noseda, Sir Simon Rattle, Santtu Matias Rouvali and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

An active recitalist very much in demand, Seong-Jin Cho performs in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls. During the coming season he is engaged to perform solo recitals at the likes of Carnegie Hall, Boston Celebrity Series, Walt Disney Hall, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Liederhalle Stuttgart, at Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Berliner Philharmonie, Musikverein Wien and he debuts in recital at the Barbican London. 

Seong-Jin Cho’s recordings have garnered impressive critical acclaim worldwide. The most recent one is of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Scherzi with the London Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda, having previously recorded Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 as well as the Four Ballades with the same orchestra and conductor. His latest solo album titled The Wanderer was released in May 2020. 

Born in 1994 in Seoul, Seong-Jin Cho started learning the piano at the age of six and gave his first public recital aged 11. In 2009, he became the youngest-ever winner of Japan’s Hamamatsu International Piano Competition. In 2011, he won Third Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at the age of 17. From 2012–2015 he studied with Michel Béroff at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. Seong-Jin Cho is now based in Berlin.

Semyon Bychkov  conductor

Semyon Bychkov

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).

As a student, Semyon Bychkov became enthusiastic about Tchaikovsky, and the same thing happened to Seong-Jin Cho with Ravel. The first love affair led ultimately to a recording Tchaikovsky’s complete symphonies, while the Korean pianist’s performing of music by Ravel led none other than Simon Rattle to call him a “poet at the piano”. We hope that both combinations will bring success in our jubilee 130th concert season.