26. 4. 2021 • Adéla Dražanová
He says music is his life, and his life is music. And that is natural, because he is one of the world’s best conductors and a phenomenon that hardly bears comparison. Nonetheless, in the text that follows, there is not much to read about music as such. The life story of Semyon Bychkov, chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, is so fascinating, and he is so wonderful at telling it, that in the course of a two-and-a-half hour interview, we (almost) did not get around to talking about music.
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20. 4. 2021 • Tereza Šindlerová
The soprano Elena Stikhina, pianists Ingmar Lazar and Adam Laloum or trumpeter Selina Ott. These are just a few names of musicians that have performed in the concert halls of the Rudolfinum in Prague during the past three seasons. What do all of the aforementioned ones have in common? They have not reached 35 years of age yet, are heading for international careers in music and their Prague performance was organised under the auspices of the Classical Futures European grant programme.
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21. 1. 2021 • Michaela Vostřelová
Semyon Bychkov is half way through his five-year term as the Artistic Director of the Czech Philharmonic. He says that he has never experienced such hard times with any of his previous orchestras. Besides cancelled concerts, postponed recording plans and cautious outlook for the future, there are still composers who write new music for the Czech Philharmonic. And this was the main focus of our interview.
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17. 4. 2020 • Colin Clarke
The very heart of European thought is reciprocity, so how heart-warming it was to welcome the idea of members of the Czech Philharmonic coming here to London to work with students at the Royal Academy of Music for several days in early March before Academy students were due to jet off to Prague to play Smetana’s Má vlast, as part of the Prague Spring International Music Festival.
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10. 1. 2020 • Boris Klepal
Since the fantastic success of his opera South Pole in Munich, Miroslav Srnka has undoubtedly become the most familiar face of the Czech contemporary music scene. Our interview, however, deals not so much with media fame as with the consequences it has had for the rest of his life. This is related to Srnka’s collaboration with the Czech Philharmonic, his shift from the privacy of composing into public life, and how the specifics of his situation influence solutions to compositional problems and creative questions in general.
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18. 10. 2019 • Alena Sojková
The chief conductor and artistic director of the Czech Philharmonic Semyon Bychkov has thrown himself energetically into his second season in Prague. After the opening programme including Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony, in October there will be three performances of Smetana’s Má vlast (My Homeland) as part of Subscription Series B. Performing this iconic work in the course of a season is unusual, but Semyon Bychkov has reasons for doing so. The interview that follows will cover this and other questions.
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30. 9. 2019 • Ondřej Čížek
You enter the time machine and let it take you to the distant as well as recent past. You find yourself in the musical heart of Prague and meet the fabulous conductor Leonard Bernstein. You experience his excellent rise in the years 1946 and 1947 and his magnificent return in June 1990. This all in the presence of the Czech Philharmonic. It is a fascinating story full of healthy nostalgia, musical brilliance, diverse emotions, and details and moments which will (perhaps) never occur again. Enjoy it.
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2. 3. 2018 • Jana Orlová
They play music all day, and when they want to relax in their spare time, they... play music. This is a common feature of chamber ensembles of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, which since the summer of 2017 have been presented to the general public in Suk Hall of the Rudolfinum.
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27. 10. 2017 •
"But you know, ladies and gentlemen, after this kind of appeal, after this kind of introduction, after everything that I lived with these people on stage where there were moments of such indescribable beauty on that stage that you say to yourself how beautiful it is to be alive and to receive it. And when that appeal comes to you, there is no other choice but to accept gratefully and try to imagine how you can make sure that the world always recognises this Orchestra as a treasure."From the speech of Semyon Bychkov
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