Semyon Bychkov to Return to the New York Philharmonic to Conduct Dessner, Strauss, & Rachmaninoff

Semyon Bychkov, Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic, returns to the New York Philharmonic for his seventeenth subscription concert appearance on November 30, December 1 & 2, 2023 at the Wu Tsai Theater, David Geffen Hall. He conducts the New York Premiere of Bryce Dessner’s Concerto for Two Pianos, featuring renowned pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque, for whom Dessner composed the work. The program also includes Richard Strauss’s Don Juan and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. 

Bychkov and the Labèques have previously performed Bryce Dessner's Concerto for Two Pianos with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, and the Czech Philharmonic. In an interview with The Washington Post, Katia Labèque noted that Dessner’s Concerto for Two Pianos is “one of the most beautiful concertos that have been written for us.” In addition to the Concerto for Two Pianos, Bychkov has conducted the world premiere of Dessner’s Mari with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, and has subsequently conducted the work with the Czech Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, and ​​Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. 

Rachmaninoff’s music is particularly close to Bychkov’s heart. As a child, he read everything that was available to him and listened to every recording that he could find featuring Rachmaninoff as either conductor or pianist. In 1973 – the centenary of Rachmaninoff’s death – and while still a student at the Leningrad Conservatory, Bychkov’s performance of Symphonic Dances earned him first prize in the Rachmaninoff Conducting Competition. Emigrating to the US in 1975, he struck up a friendship with the daughter of Rachmaninoff’s cousin, Alexander Siloti, with whom the composer had studied at the Moscow Conservatory.

“Rachmaninoff was so often seen as the composer of pretty, rather banal melodies, but I believe we are now free enough to regard him more objectively and less ideologically. And if we do, it becomes apparent that this music was written by a man of great intellect, a master of musical form, a master of orchestral treatment, who continued to develop throughout the course of his life.”

Following the performances with the New York Philharmonic, Bychkov returns to the Cleveland Orchestra from December 7-9, 2023 to conduct the U.S premiere of Julian Anderson’s Symphony No. 2, “Prague Panoramas,” as well as Tchaikovsky and Martinů with Katia and Marielle Labèque. Anderson’s Symphony No. 2 is one of the five works – along with Dessner’s Mari — that were commissioned by the Czech Philharmonic initiated by Bychkov at the start of his tenure as Chief Conductor and Music Director.

He then returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from December 14-16, 2023 conducting a program of Dvořák, Brahms, and Saint-Saëns with violinist Renaud Capuçon. Bychkov has conducted the Chicago Symphony on a regular basis since 1988, including a 2015 appearance that also featured Capuçon.

Wu Tsai Theater, David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center
Thursday, November 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, December 1 at 2:00 p.m.
Saturday, December 2 at 8:00 p.m.  

Semyon Bychkov, conductor
New York Philharmonic
Katia and Marielle Labèque, Pianos

R. STRAUSS  Don Juan
Bryce Dessner  Concerto for Two Pianos (New York Premiere)
RACHMANINOFF  Symphonic Dances

Tickets priced $56-$199 are available at nyphil.org, the David Geffen Hall box office, or by calling 212-875-5656.

ABOUT SEMYON BYCHKOV

Semyon Bychkov’s inaugural season with the Czech Philharmonic was celebrated with performances from the Orchestra’s home in Prague to concerts in London, New York, and Washington. Now in his sixth season as chief conductor and music director, Bychkov will celebrate 2024’s Year of Czech Music by taking the Orchestra on extensive tours of Asia and Europe.

Bychkov’s first season with the Czech Philharmonic saw the culmination of The Tchaikovsky Project — a series of residencies and seven CDs devoted to Tchaikovsky’s symphonic repertoire. Over the past two years the focus has turned to the music of Mahler, with performances of the symphonies at home, on tour, and on disc for Pentatone. The cycle launched in 2022 with the release of Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5, followed in 2023 with the release of Symphonies No. 2, Resurrection, and No. 1.

Especially recognized for his interpretations of the core repertoire, Bychkov has collaborated with many extraordinary contemporary composers including Luciano Berio, Henri Dutilleux, and Mauricio Kagel. More-recent collaborations include those with Julian Anderson, Bryce Dessner, Detlev Glanert, Thierry Escaich, and Thomas Larcher, whose works he has premiered with the Czech Philharmonic, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Vienna, Berlin, New York, and Munich philharmonic orchestras. Dividing his time between symphonic and operatic repertoire, this summer he will return to Bayreuth for Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. 

Like 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, he emigrated to the United States in 1975 and, since the mid-1980s has lived in Europe. Singled out for an extraordinarily privileged musical education, Bychkov studied at the Glinka Choir School and with the legendary Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatory — combining innate musicality with rigorous Russian pedagogy. 

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 was named Conductor of the Year by Musical America in October 2022. Bychkov was one of the first musicians to express his position on the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and has subsequently spoken frequently in support of Ukraine.


ABOUT KATIA AND MARIELLE LABÈQUE

Katia and Marielle Labèque are regular guests with the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Dresden Staatskapelle, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, and Vienna Philharmonic, as well as the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Chicago, and London symphony orchestras. They have worked with conductors including Marin Alsop, Semyon Bychkov, Gustavo Dudamel, Gustavo Gimeno, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Pietari Inkinen, Louis Langrée, Zubin Mehta, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Matthias Pintscher, Georges Pretre, Simon Rattle, Santtu Matias Rouvali, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Jaap van Zweden.