Semyon Bychkov conducts through pain in celebrating Year of Czech Music with North American tour
Celebrating the end of the 100th anniversary Year of Czech Music, an event held every decade in the year ending in 4, Semyon Bychkov is conducting through pain in leading the Czech Philharmonic on a North American tour to New York and Toronto
NEW YORK (AP) — Eva Krestová remembered Semyon Bychkov’s first rehearsal as chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, leading Shostakovich’s “Leningrad” symphony.
“I was shaking,” the viola leader recalled of that day in Prague’s Rudolfinum. “He smiled at me and from this moment, I knew that I can do it. He told me very nice words after — he told me that this is exactly what my viola section needs.”
Celebrating the end of the 100th anniversary Year of Czech Music, an event held every decade in the year ending in 4, Bychkov is conducting through pain in leading the Czech Philharmonic on a North American tour to New York and Toronto.
He had lumbar decompression surgery in September after finishing the new production of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” at the Bayreuth Festival and the 72-year-old was limping slightly at Carnegie Hall this week, holding a podium railing and music stands for support as he walked on and off stage.
