Czech Philharmonic, Semyon Bychkov, Yunchan Lim

Chosen as Gramophone’s 2024 ‘Orchestra of the Year’, this season the Czech Philharmonic will be a guest in the most prestigious halls across East Asia – Taiwan, Japan and South Korea – as well as major cities in Germany, Italy, Austria, Luxembourg and Belgium. In the Czech Republic, the orchestra appears at its home, the Rudolfinum in Prague, at festivals including Prague Spring, Dvořák Prague and Smetana Litomyšl, as well as at international festivals such as Grafenegg, George Enescu and Bad Kissingen.

The Czech Philharmonic and its Chief Conductor and Music Director, Semyon Bychkov, launch the 130th season in Prague with two programmes that feature composers who have been particularly significant throughout Bychkov’s career: Tchaikovsky, with whom he initiated his tenure with the Czech Philharmonic; and Shostakovich, whose 50th anniversary is being commemorated across the world. Both programmes also feature works for piano: Ravel’s Piano Concerto and Strauss’ Burleske.

The Czech Philharmonic’s programmes with Bychkov this season feature Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella and The Rite of Spring, Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and concertos by Elgar, Brahms and Bryce Dessner, the 130th season’s Composer-in-Residence. In November, Bychkov will conduct Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the 130th season Artist-in-Residence, Evgeny Kissin. Kissin will also give a solo recital as part of his residency.

2024 was the Year of Czech Music and the bicentenary of Bedřich Smetana, commemorated by the Czech Philharmonic and Bychkov with a new recording of Má vlast on PENTATONE. This recording, recently nominated for a 2025 BBC Music Magazine Award, was followed by the release of Dvořák’s Symphonies Nos. 7, 8 and 9, and the culmination of the Year of Czech Music in New York with a three-day residency at Carnegie Hall. In its review of the concerts, The New York Times described the Czech Philharmonic as “a timeless treasure… and an excellent steward for its country’s musical heritage.” In 2025, the orchestra celebrates the 150th anniversary of Vltava – the iconic second poem of Má vlast – with performances in Prague and East Asia.

The two Principal Guest Conductors of the Czech Philharmonic, Sir Simon Rattle and Jakub Hrůša, both conduct the orchestra this season. In December, Rattle leads the Czech Philharmonic and the women of the Prague Philharmonic Choir in music by Debussy, Messiaen and Mahler, as well as a programme of works by Berlioz, Lutosławski and Beethoven with the Czech Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (CPYO). In September, PENTATONE release Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances conducted by Rattle, and with Jakub Hrůša continue their exploration of music by Josef Suk. Hrůša will also conduct music by Sibelius, Britten and the Czech premiere of Dessner’s St. Carolyn by the Sea for two electric guitars.

Each year the CPYO collaborates with a conductor appearing with the Czech Philharmonic and this season, in addition to Rattle, they will also work on Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 with Giovanni Antonini. Antonini is of course just one of the many guest conductors invited by the Czech Philharmonic during its 130th season. Audiences can also look forward to the return of Dalia Stasevska, Sir Antonio Pappano, Cristian Măcelaru, David Robertson, Petr Popelka, and Thomas Adès, who conducts a programme in honour of Pierre Boulez’s 100th birthday. The 2025 Velvet Revolution concerts, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’ with the Prague Philharmonic Choir, will be conducted by Zubin Mehta.

In addition to Artist-in-Residence Evgeny Kissin, soloists featured this season include Mao Fujita, Barbara Hannigan, Amihai Grosz, Fleur Barron and Anastasia Kobekina, who are appearing with the Czech Philharmonic for the first time in Prague, and home-grown and international artists Magdalena Kožená, Josef Špaček, Seong-Jin Cho, Víkingur Ólafsson, Augustin Hadelich, Sol Gabetta and Nicola Benedetti, who return to the orchestra.

The Czech Philharmonic’s extraordinary and proud history reflects both its location at the very heart of Europe and the Czech Republic’s turbulent political history. Throughout the orchestra’s history, two features have remained at its core: its championing of Czech composers and its belief in music’s power to change lives. From as early as the 1920s, Václav Talich pioneered concerts for workers, young people and voluntary organisations, a philosophy which remains equally vibrant today. Alongside the CPYO, Orchestral Academy and the Jiří Bělohlávek Prize for young musicians, a comprehensive education strategy engages with more than 400 schools and an inspirational music and song programme led by singer Ida Kelarová for the extensive Romany communities has helped many socially excluded families to find a voice.

An early champion of the music of Martinů and Janáček, the Czech Philharmonic’s first concert in 1896 was an all-Dvořák programme conducted by the composer himself. Works by Czech composers – both established and new – remain the orchestra’s lifeblood. At the start of his tenure in 2018, Semyon Bychkov initiated the commissioning of works from fourteen Czech and international composers including Detlev Glanert, Julian Anderson, Thomas Larcher, Bryce Dessner and Thierry Escaich. Equally recognised for its special relationship with the music of Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Mahler – who conducted the world premiere of his Symphony No. 7 with the orchestra in 1908 – the Czech Philharmonic and Bychkov are currently mid-way through a Mahler cycle. The cycle – the orchestra’s first complete new recording of the symphonies since Václav Neumann’s more than 40 years ago – will be released by PENTATONE as a box set in spring 2026.

source: Česká filharmonie

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 the year, the Year of Czech Music 2024 will culminate 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, Semyon Bychkov with the Czech Philharmonic concentrated on recording Czech music – a CD was released with Bedřich Smetana’s Má vlast and Antonín Dvořák’s last three symphonies and overtures.

Bychkov’s 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, which 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-1980s. 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).

source: Česká filharmonie

photo © Petra Hajská

“A one-in-a-million talent.”
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“I made up my mind that I will live my life only for the sake of music, and I decided that I will give up everything for music… I want my music to become deeper, and if that desire reaches the audience, I’m satisfied.” – Yunchan Lim

Since becoming the youngest person ever to win gold at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at the age of 18 in 2022, Yunchan Lim’s ascent to international stardom has been meteoric. His performances showcase a “magical ability” and a “natural, instinctive quality” (La Scena) that astounds listeners around the world, bringing “profound musicality and prodigious technique organically together” (Marin Alsop).

His audacious performance of Liszt’s Transcendental Études “created a buzz throughout the international piano community” (Gramophone), and his appearance with Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 delivered the defining moment of the competition, as one critic noted: “The applause that followed was endless: a star had emerged before our eyes” (Seen and Heard International). The video of Yunchan’s Rachmaninov performance trended globally on YouTube in the days after and has now become the most-watched version of that piece on the platform, amassing well over 17 million views. The New York Times later listed it as one of the Top 10 Classical Music Performances of 2022.

In the years following his Cliburn win, Yunchan made successful orchestral debuts with New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic and Seoul Philharmonic, as well as Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France (Radio France) and Orchestre de Paris, among others. Recital appearances included performances at Carnegie Hall, Verbier Festival, Wigmore Hall, Het Concertgebouw and Suntory Hall. Yunchan regularly works with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Myung-Whun Chung, Charles Dutoit, Gustavo Dudamel, James Gaffigan, Paavo Järvi, Cristian Măcelaru, Klaus Mäkelä, Gianandrea Noseda, Antonio Pappano, Matthias Pintscher, Tugan Sokhiev, Thomas Søndergård, Jaap van Zweden and Kazuki Yamada, to name a few.

Yunchan’s upcoming 2025/26 season highlights include orchestral debuts with Philadelphia Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, as well as returns to New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris. The season will also see recitals in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall, among other major stages.

The 2024/25 season saw Yunchan’s return to the BBC Proms and Verbier Festival, as well as returns to Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris. The season also saw orchestral debuts with Washington National Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra, as well as Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, The Cleveland Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra. Yunchan made recital debuts performing Bach’s Goldberg Variations at the Kennedy Center, Philharmonie de Paris and Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, as well as appearing at Chamber Music San Francisco, Vancouver Recital Society, La Jolla Music Society, Gstaad Menuhin Festival and La Roque-d’Anthéron Festival. These performances were highly praised by critics, with one review noting “a virtuoso display of how much one pianist can pack into this single work” (Financial Times).

As an exclusive Decca Classics recording artist, Yunchan Lim’s acclaimed debut studio album, Chopin: Études Opp. 10 & 25, has gone quadruple platinum in South Korea and topped the classical charts around the world. The album won the 2024 Gramophone Award for Piano; he was also named Young Artist of the Year, received the prestigious Diapason d’Or de l’année, and was nominated for an Opus Klassik. He also made history by winning three awards at the BBC Music Magazine Awards, including Recording of the Year.

His other releases on the label include the recording of his performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, recorded live from the Cliburn Competition final, and Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons. His previous releases include his award-winning Cliburn performance of Liszt’s Transcendental Études (Steinway & Sons), Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor” (Universal Music Group), and his appearance on KBS’s Young Musicians of Korea (2020) album. Since January 2024, Yunchan has been an Apple Music Classical Global Ambassador.

Born in Siheung, Korea, Yunchan Lim began piano lessons at the age of 7. He entered the Music Academy of the Seoul Arts Center the following year and quickly became immersed in his musical studies. He auditioned for and was accepted into the Korea National Institute for the Gifted in Arts at the age of 13, where he met his teacher and mentor, Minsoo Sohn. A year later, in 2018, he captured international attention when he won both Second Prize and the Chopin Special Award at his first competition, the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists. That same year, he won both the Third Prize and the Audience Prize at the Cooper International Competition, which also provided him with the opportunity to perform with The Cleveland Orchestra. In 2019, aged only 15, he became the youngest person to win Korea’s IsangYun International Competition, where he also received two special prizes. Following two years at the Korea National University of Arts, Yunchan is currently studying at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston with his teacher Minsoo Sohn.

source: IMG Artists

photo © Shin Yoong Kim