“See the music, hear the dance.”
Listening to the Czech Philharmonic this fall, both at their home in Prague, the Rudolfinum, and in their many recent recordings under current music director Semyon Bychkov, that quote from George Balanchine often came to mind. What was different about these renditions of classics? The orchestra’s dark, rustic strings and frank, un-flashy brass shone, but Bychkov made Mahler’s Fourth Symphony shimmer playfully and the same composer’s First bounce with a youthful insouciance. In many moments of their Tchaikovsky albums you can almost sense ballerinas in the wings waiting to take flight. Quite simply, they make the music dance.
Like Balanchine, Bychkov left Russia to live in America—and this was one of the concerns when the former head of orchestras in France, Germany and the U.S. took over as music director of the Czech Philharmonic in 2017. Could an outsider be trusted with the country’s unique melodies, rhythms and energy?
American audiences will hear just how well this union has served Czech music in December, when Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic travel to New York to perform at Carnegie Hall for three straight nights. The concerts are officially part of “The Year of Czech Music,” a decennial event that started in 1924 to celebrate a century since the birth of Bedřich Smetana, the father of that region’s Bohemian, Moravian and Silesian sounds. The opening night concert will feature Smetana’s “Má Vlast,” but the concerts are more a showcase for Antonin Dvořák—who conducted the Czech Philharmonic’s first ever concert in 1896—whose concertos will be performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham, and Daniil Trifonov. I spoke to Bychkov in advance of these Carnegie performances about his tenure in Prague, the orchestra’s legacy and future, and how it maintains its distinct český character and feel despite the increasing globalization of the classical music industry.
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