Semyon Bychkov

Czech Philharmonic, Semyon Bychkov – Smetana: Má Vlast (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:21:47 minutes | 1,40 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PENTATONE

The Czech Philharmonic and its Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov present a new recording of Bedřich Smetana’s masterpiece Má vlast (My Homeland). The album celebrates both the bicentenary of Smetana’s birth and, the start of 2024’s Year of Czech Music which has been celebrated every ten years since Smetana’s 100th anniversary in 1924. Má vlast (1874-1878) is a potent symbol of the Czech Republic’s turbulent political history and has played an important role in the Czech national movement. Contemplating the landscape, history, and legends of Bohemia, Má vlast is best known for its world-famous Moldau melody. For Bychkov, who was born in Russia before emigrating to the United States, and now lives in France, the question of ‘the homeland’ is particularly poignant – how to take pride in the best of its heritage, while also coming to terms with its darker pages. For the Orchestra to revisit this seminal piece with Bychkov, with whom it has developed such a close working relationship over the past few years, makes the recording all the more personal and topical.

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Czech Philharmonic & Semyon Bychkov – Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 55:14 minutes | 924 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone

The Czech Philharmonic and Music Director, Semyon Bychkov, continue their acclaimed Mahler cycle with the composer’s First Symphony, one of the most evocative and colourful symphonic debuts in the history of the genre. Mahler once famously said that “a symphony should be like the world, it should encompass everything.” In his First Symphony, he creates just such a world, filled with animal sounds, hunting horns, rural dances, klezmer bands and allusions to his own songs and folk song melodies such as Frère Jacques. These elements all function within a highly subjective, immersive symphonic drama, providing a blueprint for most of his symphonies to come. Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic approach the composer’s firstling with their esteemed eye for detail and pacing, matched by their unmistakably Bohemian sound.

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Semyon Bychkov, Czech Philharmonic – Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:17 minutes | 1,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Music Group Ltd.

Semyon Bychkov conducts the Czech Philharmonic in Tchaikovsky’s epic Manfred Symphony for Volume 2 of his Tchaikovsky Project.

Following 2016’s critically acclaimed Tchaikovsky Project Vol.1 (Pathétique and Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture), Volume 2 is released to coincide with the performance of Manfred Symphony at the BBC Proms on Thursday 31 August 2017.

The Tchaikovsky Project is a multi-year project shedding new light on the great master’s major orchestral works. Each recording benefits from extensive preparation time, the best possible recording conditions and Bychkov’s in-depth research on these works.

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