about the tour.

The Czech Philharmonic will embark on a tour with their Chief Conductor Semyon Bychkov in March 2025.

Programm 1:
Dmitrij Schostakowitsch: Konzert für Violoncello und Orchester Nr. 1 Es-Dur op. 107 (1959)

**************

Dmitrij Schostakowitsch: Symphonie Nr. 5 d-Moll op. 47

Programm 2:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Konzert für 2 Klaviere und Orchester Es-Dur KV 365 (316a)

**************

Gustav Mahler: Sinfonie Nr. 5 cis-Moll in fünf Sätzen für großes Orchester (1901/03)

read more show less

Your contact persons:

Christoph Drescher

Managing Director

christoph.drescher@kdschmid.de

An Orchestra full of experience.

Biography – about the orchestra.

Nominated for Gramophone’s 2022 ‘Orchestra of the Year’, the 129-year-old Czech Philharmonic gave its first concert – an all Dvořák programme conducted by the composer himself - in the famed Rudolfinum Hall on 4 January 1896. The Orchestra is acknowledged for its definitive interpretations of Czech composers and recognised for its special relationship to the music of Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Mahler, who conducted the world premiere of his Symphony No. 7 with the Orchestra in 1908. It is currently recording the complete cycle of Mahler symphonies with Chief Conductor and Music Director, Semyon Bychkov for PENTATONE.

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, for which Smetana’s Má Vlast (My Homeland) has become a potent symbol. 2024 is the Year of Czech Music, a major celebration of Czech music launched on the centenary of Smetana’s birth and celebrated across the Czech Republic every 10 years. For the 200th anniversary of Smetana’s birth, the Czech Philharmonic released a new recording of Má Vlast conducted by Bychkov, and at the Prague Spring International Music and Smetana Litomyšl Festivals, present rare concert performances of Libuše conducted by Principal Guest Conductor Jakub Hrůša. In December, the Orchestra and Bychkov travel to New York for Czech Week at Carnegie Hall for which they have programmed Dvořák’s concertos for cello, violin and piano. For the Piano Concerto, they will be joined by the 129th season’s Artist-in-Residence Daniil Trifonov.

Throughout the Czech Philharmonic’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 1920’s, Václav Talich (Chief Conductor 1919-1941) pioneered concerts for workers, young people and voluntary organisations, a philosophy which is equally as vibrant today.

Alongside the Czech Philharmonic’s Youth Orchestra, Orchestral Academy and Jiří Bělohlávek Prize for young musicians, a comprehensive education strategy engages with more than 400 schools. An inspirational music and song programme led by singer Ida Kelarová for the extensive Romany communities within the Czech Republic and Slovakia has helped many socially excluded families to find a voice. As part of Czech Week at Carnegie Hall this year, four members of the Orchestral Academy will travel to New York where they will join forces with four young musicians from Carnegie Hall and four students from the Royal Academy of Music with whom the Czech Philharmonic have an annual education exchange programme.

An early champion of the music of Martinů and Janáček, the works of Czech composers - both established and new - remain the lifeblood of the Orchestra. Initiated by Semyon Bychkov at the start of his tenure, nine Czech composers and five international composers - Detlev Glanert, Julian Anderson, Thomas Larcher, Bryce Dessner and Thierry Escaich – were commissioned to write for the Czech Philharmonic; the Orchestra additionally holds an annual young composers’ competition launched in 2014 by Jiří Bělohlávek (Chief Conductor 2012-2017).

A KD SCHMID touring orchestra

SEASON 2024/2025

read more show less

Visit the orchestras website or social media accounts

Dirigent/-in

Semyon Bychkov

Semyon Bychkov © Marco Borggreve

In the 2023-24 season, Semyon Bychkov’s programmes centred on Dvorak’s last three symphonies, the concertos for piano, violin and cello, and the trilogy of overtures “Nature, Life and Love”. In addition to conducting in Prague’s Rudolfinum, Bychkov and the Orchestra took the all-Dvořák programmes to Korea and across Japan with three concerts in Tokyo’s famed Suntory Hall. Later, in spring, an extensive European tour took the programmes to Spain, Austria, Germany, Belgium, and France and, at the end of 2024, the Year of Czech Music will culminate with three concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall. As well as featuring Dvorak’s three concertos, the programmes will include three poems from Smetana’s “Má vlast”, Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 and “Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass” for which the Orchestra will be joined by the Prague Philharmonic Choir. Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic launched 2024’s Year of Czech Music in March with the release – on Smetana’s 200th birthday - of Smetana’s “Má vlast”.

Bychkov’s inaugural season with the Czech Philharmonic was celebrated with an international tour that took the Orchestra from performances at home in Prague to concerts in London, New York, and Washington. The following year saw the completion of “The Tchaikovsky Project” – the release of a 7-CD box set devoted to Tchaikovsky’s symphonic repertoire and a series of international residencies. In his first season with the Czech Philharmonic, Bychkov also instigated the commissioning of 14 new works which have subsequently been premièred by the Orchestra and performed by orchestras across Europe and in the United States.

As well as the focus on Dvorak’s music, Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic are performing and recording Mahler’s symphonies as part of PENTATONE’S ongoing complete Mahler cycle. The first symphonies in the cycle – Symphony No. 4 and Symphony No. 5 were released in 2022, followed in 2023 by Symphony No. 1 and, Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”. During this season, Bychkov will conduct Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 with the Orchestra in Prague, New York and Toronto, and Symphony No. 8 in Prague.

While especially recognised for his interpretations of the core repertoire, Bychkov has built strong and lasting relationships with many extraordinary contemporary composers including Luciano Berio, Henri Dutilleux and Maurizio Kagel. More recent collaborations include those with Julian Anderson, Bryce Dessner, Detlev Glanert, Thierry Escaich and Thomas Larcher whose works he has premièred with the Czech Philharmonic, as well as with the Concertgebouworkest, the Vienna, Berlin, New York and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras, Cleveland Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

In common with the Czech Philharmonic, Bychkov has one foot firmly in the culture of the East and one in the West. Born in St Petersburg in 1952, Bychkov emigrated to the United States in 1975 and has lived in Europe since the mid-1980's. Singled out at the age of 5 for an extraordinarily privileged musical education, Bychkov studied piano before winning his place at the Glinka Choir School where, aged 13, he received his first lesson in conducting. He was 17 when he was accepted at the Leningrad Conservatory to study with the legendary Ilya Musin and, within three years had won the influential Rachmaninov Conducting Competition. Bychkov left the former Soviet Union when he was denied his prize, to conduct the Leningrad Philharmonic.

By the time Bychkov returned to St Petersburg in 1989 as the Philharmonic’s Principal Guest Conductor, he had enjoyed success in the US as Music Director of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic. His international career, which began in France with Opéra de Lyon and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, took off with a series of high-profile cancellations which resulted in invitations to conduct the New York and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras and the Concertgebouworkest. In 1989, he was named Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris; in 1997, Chief Conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne; and in 1998, Chief Conductor of the Dresden Semperoper.

Bychkov’s symphonic and operatic repertoire is wide-ranging. He conducts in all the major opera houses including La Scala, Opéra national de Paris, Dresden Semperoper, Wiener Staatsoper, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Teatro Real. Madrid. While Principal Guest Conductor of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, his productions of Janáček’s “Jenůfa”, Schubert’s Fierrabras, Puccini’s “La bohème”, Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” and Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” each won the prestigious “Premio Abbiati”. In Vienna, he has conducted new productions of Strauss’ “Daphne”, Wagner’s Lohengrin and “Parsifal”, and Mussorgsky’s “Khovanshchina”, as well as revivals of Strauss’ “Elektra” and Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde”; while in London, he made his operatic debut with a new production of Strauss’ “Elektra”, and subsequently conducted new productions of Mozart’s “Così fan tutte”, Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten and Wagner’s Tannhäuser. Recent productions include Wagner’s “Parsifal” at the Bayreuth Festival, Strauss’s “Elektra” in Vienna, Dvořák’s “Rusalka” in London, and Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde” in Madrid. He returned to Bayreuth to conduct a new production of Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde” in summer 2024.

Bychkov’s combination of innate musicality and rigorous Russian pedagogy has ensured that his performances are highly anticipated. In the UK, the warmth of his relationships is reflected in honorary titles at the Royal Academy of Music and the BBC Symphony Orchestra - with whom he appears annually at the BBC Proms. In Europe, he tours with the Concertgebouworkest and Munich Philharmonic, as well as being a guest of the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Orchestre National de France and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; in the US, he can be heard with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Symphony, Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras.

Bychkov has recorded extensively for Philips with the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio, Concertgebouworkest, Philharmonia, London Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris. His 13-year collaboration (1997-2010) with WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne produced a series of benchmark recordings that included works by Strauss (Elektra, Daphne, Ein Heldenleben, Metamorphosen, Alpensinfonie, Till Eulenspiegel), Mahler (Symphony No. 3, Das Lied von der Erde), Shostakovich (Symphony Nos. 4, 7, 8, 10, 11), Rachmaninov (The Bells, Symphonic Dances, Symphony No. 2), Verdi (Requiem), a complete cycle of Brahms Symphonies, and works by Detlev Glanert and York Höller. His 1992 recording of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin with the Orchestre de Paris was recommended by BBC’s Radio 3’s Building a Library (2020); 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). Of The Tchaikovsky Project released in 2019, BBC Music Magazine wrote, “The most beautiful orchestra playing imaginable can be heard on Semyon Bychkov’s 2017 recording with the Czech Philharmonic, in which Decca’s state-of-the art recording captures every detail.”

In 2015, Semyon Bychkov was named Conductor of the Year by the International Opera Awards. He received an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal Academy of Music in July 2022 and the award for Conductor of the Year from Musical America in October 2022.

Bychkov was one of the first musicians to express his position on the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, since when he has spoken in support of Ukraine in Prague’s Wenceslas Square; on radio and television in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Austria, the UK and the USA; written By Invitation for The Economist; and appeared as a guest on BBC World’s HARDtalk.

SEASON 2024/2025 - THIS BIOGRAPHY IS AVAILABLE BY COURTESY OF ENTICOTT MUSIC MANAGEMENT

read more show less

VISIT THE ARTIST'S WEBSITE OR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

WebSite

Solisten

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Cello

Sheku Kanneh-Mason © Ollie Ali

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s mission is to make music accessible to all, whether that's performing for children in a school hall, at an underground club, or in the world’s leading concert venues. Highlights of the 24/25 season include the Konzerthaus Berlin as Artist in Residence, Lucerne Festival 2024 as Artiste Étoile, Czech Philharmonic in Prague and on tour with both Jakub Hrůša and Semyon Bychkov, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich with Paavo Järvi, WDR Symphony Cologne with Cristian Măcelaru, Orchestre National de Lyon with Leonard Slatkin, Sinfonia of London with John Wilson on tour in the UK, SWR Symphony Stuttgart with Christoph Eschenbach, Camerata Salzburg on tour, Pittsburgh Symphony with Manfred Honeck, New World Symphony with Stéphane Denève, Philadelphia Orchestra with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and City of Birmingham Symphony with Kazuki Yamada.

With his pianist sister, Isata Kanneh-Mason, he makes his duo recital debut in recital debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium in a programme featuring a newly commissioned piece by Natalie Klouda. The pair also appear on tour in Bordeaux, Rome, Cincinnati, Toronto, Philadelphia, Dublin, Munich, Berlin, Antwerp, Haarlem, the Rheingau Festival, and at London’s Wigmore Hall. Sheku Kanneh-Mason also appears with duo partners guitarist Plinio Fernandes, and jazz pianist Harry Baker.

Since his debut in 2017, Kanneh-Mason has performed every summer at the BBC Proms, including as soloist at the 2023 Last Night of the Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop. In 2024, his family-friendly Proms appearances with the Fantasia Orchestra were designed to introduce orchestral classical music to a new generation of music lovers. Kanneh-Mason also returns to Antigua, where he has family connections, as an ambassador for the Antigua and Barbuda Youth Symphony Orchestra.

A Decca Classics recording artist, Kanneh-Mason appears on the May 2024 recording of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto alongside Nicola Benedetti, Benjamin Grosvenor, and the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Santtu-Matias Rouvali. His 2022 album, 'Song', showcases his innately lyrical playing in a wide and varied range of arrangements and collaborations. Kanneh-Mason‘s 2020 album 'Elgar' reached No. 8 in the overall Official UK Album Chart, making him the first ever cellist to reach the UK Top 10. Sheet music collections of his performance repertoire along with his own arrangements and compositions are published by Faber.

Kanneh-Mason is a graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Hannah Roberts and in May 2022 was appointed as the Academy’s first Menuhin Visiting Professor of Performance Mentoring. In 2024 he accepted the role as patron of UK Music Masters and remains an ambassador for both Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Future Talent. Kanneh-Mason was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List. After winning the BBC Young Musician competition in 2016, Kanneh-Mason’s performance at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle in 2018 was watched by two billion people worldwide. He plays a Matteo Goffriller cello from 1700 which is on indefinite loan to him.

SEASON 2024/25 - THIS BIOGRAPHY IS AVAILABLE BY COURTESY OF ENTICOTT MUSIC MANAGEMENT.

read more show less

VISIT THE ARTIST'S WEBSITE OR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

Katia and Marielle Labèque, Piano

Katia und Marielle Labèque © Stefania Paparelli

Katia and Marielle Labèque are sibling pianists renowned for their ensemble of synchronicity and energy. Their musical ambitions started at an early age and they rose to international fame with their contemporary rendition of Gershwin's “Rhapsody in Blue” (one of the first gold records in classical music) and have since developed a stunning career with performances worldwide.

They are regular guests with the most prestigious orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Filarmonia della Scala, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Santa Cecilia and Vienna Philharmonic, under the direction of John Adams, Semyon Bychkov, Sir Colin Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Gustavo Gimeno, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, Pietari Inkinen, Louis Langrée, Zubin Mehta, Juanjo Mena, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Matthias Pintscher, Georges Prêtre, Sir Simon Rattle, Santtu Matias Rouvali, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas and Jaap van Zweden.

They have appeared with Baroque music ensembles such as The English Baroque Soloists with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Il Giardino Armonico with Giovanni Antonini, Musica Antica with Reinhard Goebel and Venice Baroque Orchestra with Andrea Marcon, Il Pomo d’Oro with Maxim Emelyanichev and also toured with The Age of Enlightenment & Sir Simon Rattle.

Katia and Marielle have had the privilege of working with many composers including Thomas Adès, Louis Andriessen, Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Bryce Dessner, Philip Glass, Osvaldo Golijov, György Ligeti, Nico Muhly and Olivier Messiaen. At Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles they presented the world premiere of Philip Glass’s new Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel, the world premiere of Bryce Dessner’s concerto at Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and John Storgårds and the new concerto written by Nico Muhly “in Certain Circles” was premiered by Orchestre de Paris with Maxim Emelyanichev in 2021 and New York Philharmonic with Jaap van Zweden in 2022.

In Germany, they can be heard in Munich and Bamberg in the 2024/25 season with the BR Symphonieorchester under Simon Rattle and the concerto "Nazareno" for two pianos, percussion and orchestra by Osvaldo Golijov in an arrangement by Gonzalo Grau.

The Labèques play in festivals and renowned venues worldwide including the Vienna Musikverein, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Munich Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall, La Scala, Berlin Philharmonie, Blossom, Hollywood Bowl, Lucerne, BBC Proms, Ravinia, Tanglewood and Salzburg. An audience of more than 33.000 attended a gala concert with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle at Berlin’s Waldbühne, now available on DVD (EuroArts). A record audience of more than 100.000 attended the Vienna Summer Night Concert 2016 in Schönbrunn (now available on CD and DVD by SONY), where Katia and Marielle played with the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Semyon Bychkov. More than 1.5 million viewers followed the event worldwide on television.

For their own label KML recordings, they have released the CD box “Sisters” (2014) with a selection of musical pieces from their personal and professional lives. Previous releases include a Gershwin-Bernstein album and their project Minimalist Dream House (50 years of minimalist music). The DVD “The Labeque Way, a letter to Katia and Marielle by Alessandro Baricco” produced by El Deseo (Pedro and Augustin Almodóvar) and filmed by Felix Cabez is released by EuroArts. Their biography, “Une vie a quatre mains” by Renaud Machart is published by Buchet-Chastel.

Labèque’s label KML Recordings joined the historical label Deutsche Grammophon and released various albums: “Invocations”, “Love Stories”, “Amoria”, “Moondog”, “El Chan” -dedicated entirely to American composer Bryce Dessner and “Glass – Les Enfants Terribles”. Their latest album "Dream House Quartet" was released in April 2023. Together with Bryce Dessner and David Chalmin, the piano duo performs commissioned works by visionary composers and key contemporary works of the last half century.

At the invitation of the Philharmonie Hall in Paris for a special “Week End“, attention was focused on “Amoria”, “Invocations” and their new project for two guitars and two pianos with David Chalmin and Bryce Dessner including a piece written for them by Thom Yorke “Don’t fear the Light” with Thom Yorke as special guest

SEASON 2024/2025- THIS BIOGRAPHY IS AVAILABLE BY COURTESY OF WEIGOLD & BÖHM.

read more show less

VISIT THE ARTIST'S WEBSITE OR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS