2024-04-19 07:08:54
The Czech Philharmonic will open its 129th season with concerts on September 25 and 26 in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum. Under the leadership of its chief conductor Semjon Byčkov, it will perform works by Antonín Dvořák and Hector Berlioz. The management presented the next season’s program on Thursday. On that occasion, Byčkov announced that he would resign in 2028.
“When, after the untimely death of the beloved Jiří Bělohlávek, the musicians first asked me to become their next music director, they also asked me to become their dad. And what is the mission of every dad? To help his children grow up well,” said Byčkov, according to whom it happened so. “Thanks to this, I have come to the happy conclusion that my mission has been fulfilled. In 2028, after ten years of leading this orchestra, it will be time for me to step down from the position of chief conductor and music director,” he said. The St. Petersburg native will be 76 years old at that time.
The information was confirmed by the director of the orchestra, David Mareček. “It was with great sadness that I received the news of Semjon Byčkov’s decision not to renew his contract with the Czech Philharmonic at the end of the 2027/28 season. While I fully respect his reasons, I know that I speak for the entire orchestra when I say that we will greatly miss him both musically, so from the human side,” he said.
David Mareček has been the director of the Czech Philharmonic since 2011. | Photo: Czech Philharmonic
The name of his successor has not yet been announced by the Czech Philharmonic. Its main guest conductor remains Jakub Hrůša, who will be joined by the famous Sir Simon Rattle in the fall.
The first part of the next season should still belong to the Year of Czech Music project. The highlight will be a December residency tour to New York and Toronto with cellist Yo-Yo Mae, violinist Gil Shaham and Daniil Trifonov. This pianist will also be the resident artist of the season. “The highlight of the season will be three concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York, which will culminate the celebrations of the Year of Czech Music. We will bring Czech music there, with the partial exception of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, which we also consider a bit ours. But for the many listeners who are preparing for subscription concerts in Rudolfinum, exceptional concerts also await,” describes David Mareček.
Byčkov, who will begin his seventh season in the position of chief conductor in the fall, will perform Bach’s Mass in B minor in addition to the opening concerts with Berlioz’s Fantastic Symphony and Dvořák’s Piano Concerto. Hrůša will perform Suk’s Epilogue or Sommer’s Vocal Symphony, while Rattle will perform Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass or a concert performance of Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins. In it, the conductor’s wife, the world-famous singer Magdalena Kožená, takes on the role of Anna.
On the 50th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich’s death, Bychkov will perform his Fifth Symphony, which, after the concerts in Prague, he will perform on a spring tour in Vienna, Amsterdam, London, Paris and Bruges. With Byčkov and My Homeland, the orchestra will also visit Hanover and Baden-Baden, with conductor Tomáš Netopil in Bad Kissingen, and Hrůša will lead the Philharmonic at summer festivals in Wiesbaden, Lucerne, Hamburg and London. Next season, the troupe will also perform at domestic festivals in Prague, Litomyšl and Karlovy Vary.
Conductors Alain Altinoglu, Giovanni Antonini and Tomáš Netopil will return to the first Czech orchestra. For the first time, it welcomes the conductors Nathalia Stutzmann or Alan Gilbert. Debut soloists will also arrive – Australian pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout, British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason or Italian pianist Beatrice Rana. Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes will perform with the Philharmonic in Prague.
The Czech artists will include violinists Jan Fišer and Jiří Vodička, violist Eva Krestová and cellist Ivan Vokáč. The space at the evening concerts will be given to the Czech Student Philharmonic, which is expected to make its debut at the Dvořák Prague Festival in September. The orchestra’s regular artistic partner will be the Prague Philharmonic under the direction of Lukáš Vasilek. The traditional Concerts for Freedom and Democracy will take place on November 16 and 17 in the Rudolfinum with violinist Josef Špaček and conductor Petr Popelka.
In the 2024/2025 season, the Czech Philharmonic will release a CD with three major symphonies and concert overtures by Antonín Dvořák and a recording with Legends and Slavic Rhapsodies under the direction of Tomáš Netopil. The project of an ensemble recording of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies continues, culminating in the Eighth Symphony.
The general partner of the Czech Philharmonic, which annually manages about 450 million crowns, is the ČEZ group. Approximately 270 million crowns are provided to the budget by the Ministry of Culture, approximately 80 million crowns are contributed by donors and sponsors, including the PPF Group, CTP, Česká spořitelna and Škoda Auto. The file is approximately 41 percent self-sufficient.
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“It is unfortunate when a female conductor tries to stylize herself as a man,” conductor Anna Novotná Pešková said last year in the program Spotlight. | Video: Blahoslav Baťa