Czech Philharmonic ⬩ Semyon Bychkov

Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) moved the singer Fleur Barron the first time she heard them. “I have never felt that it is hard work to interpret or understand the content. It has always been perfectly clear to me. One can simply immerse oneself in Mahler's musical world—and for the listener, it is essential to surrender to it. Let these beautiful sound waves enter you and see what you experience. I perceive this music as an ocean of great strength.”

When Semyon Bychkov heard Mahler’s music for the first time as a student during a break between classes, when it was being played in one of the halls at the Mikhail S. Glinka Choir School, he was so thrilled by it that he forgot to return to class. His intense fascination with Mahler has lasted to the present day. Since 2022, he has been recording the complete Mahler symphonies with the Czech Philharmonic. “Something can’t be explained in words, but it is possible to feel it. And I feel that this is the perfect orchestra for the music of Gustav Mahler”, says our current chief conductor.

“Discovering Mahler’s music is like discovering life itself. Experiencing it means being drawn into his world and values. What arises from his music, letters, and the testimony of those who knew him is the duality of this man. As a creator and, at the same time, an interpreter, he invents sounds that recreate the world of nature and people. He had less than 51 years to become aware of the fundamental questions of our existence, and even less time to answer them. Still, it was long enough for him to express the polyphony of life: its nobility and banality, its reality and its otherworldliness, its childlike naiveté and its inherent tragedy”, says Maestro Bychkov.

Bychkov gives the music of Richard Wagner a surprising description: Buddhistic. He says his operas have no beginning or ending, and that normal time seemingly does not exist in them. We will be able to put that assertion to the test in the overture to Wagner’s Tannhäuser. Bychkov has conducted the opera at London’s Covent Garden and elsewhere. For Lohengrin he won the award from the BBC Music Magazine for the best recording of 2010. Currently, he is in the middle of a cycle at Bayreuth with Tristan und Isolde. In other words, he is a Wagner specialist.

The first performance of Tannhäuser Overture separate from the opera was given in 1846 by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, whose joyous Italian Symphony opens the concert.