Czech Philharmonic returns to Korea under Bychkov's baton

The Czech Philharmonic, led by conductor Semyon Bychkov, will perform two all-Dvořak concerts in Korea, showcasing the orchestra's strong identity. The performances mark Bychkov's debut in the country.

MaestroSemyon Bychkov [UMBERTO NICOLETTI]

The members of the Czech Philharmonic are returning to Korea for the first time in six years, and this time, they are introducing their “daddy” — the Russian-born conductor Semyon Bychkov — to Korean audiences for the first time.

Bychkov, who was determined not to take another position at an orchestra, said he had to break his own resolve when the orchestra members asked him to be their “daddy,” following their former conductor Jiři Bělohlávek’s death in 2017. The members voted 100 percent in favor of having Bychkov receive the baton after Bělohlávek to start the orchestra’s 2018-19 season, and the maestro has been the orchestra’s chief conductor and music director ever since.

Together, they’ll be performing two concerts in Korea, one in southern Seoul’s Seoul Arts Center on Tuesday and another at Daegu’s Concert House in North Gyeongsang the following day. Both concerts will be an all-Dvořak program — the maestro's willingness to showcase the Czech Philharmonic’s strong identity. Antonin Dvořak (1841-1904) was a Czech composer and it is said that the orchestra’s first concert under its current name in 1896 was Dvořak’s own piece conducted by him.

Czech Philharmonic [PETRA HAJSK]

Under Bychkov’s baton, the orchestra will perform Dvorak’s “Carnival Overture, Op. 92,” “Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 33,” and “Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70.” Japanese pianist Mao Fujita, who won the second prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2019, will accompany the orchestra for the piano concerto.

Although the upcoming performances are the maestro’s first here, Bychkov has had Korean fans since 1987, when they heard his debut record conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 5.” That was when Austrian conductor Herbert Karajan was leading the Berlin Philharmonic as the principal conductor.

Bychkov recalled his first encounter with Karajan, in a recent email interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily, saying that they had talked for the entire morning.

“He was a born pedagogue. As long as you asked him the question on a subject that meant a great deal to him — anything to do with music and interpreting it, its origins, its therapeutic power, and the effect it has on our nervous system — he would not care how much time it took to explain or share what he knew.”

Decades later, Bychkov too, has become an internationally revered conductor who has a lot to share about music and what conducting is for him.

Japanese pianist Mao Fujita [DOVILE SERMOKAS]

“For me, conducting is simply a way of expressing music. And to do that, you have an instrument: a pianist will have a piano and a singer will have a voice and a conductor will have an orchestra or a choir to conduct, which then becomes an instrument of expression,” he said. “The conductor’s instrument happens to be a collective of instrumentalists, or singers for that matter. And that is a little bit different because they happen to have their own personality, their own soul, their own temperament, their own habits, their own traditions, or lack of them.

“At the end, it is human communication, how do you influence them and convince them of the validity of your concept so that they want at once to follow you, and at the same time feel that they play the way they want to play it or sing it,” he added. “And when they do, when they have that feeling without rationally understanding that it's this gesture that makes them choose this. When they have this feeling, they're the happiest people in the world. Because in the end, each one has something to say or wants to express something, and wants to have a feeling that there is space to express it. And this is an essential thing for us to understand, those who conduct.”

The maestro recently made headlines for releasing a statement condemning Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. He argued that “we have no right to remain silent and watch history repeat itself as it did in 1956 and before, in 1968 and after.”

The maestro himself started his career as a refugee and dissident when he fled the Soviet Union as a young man. His family went to Vienna in 1974 then emigrated to the United States in the following year. From 1980 to 1985, he was the music director for the Grand Rapids Symphony in Michigan. It looks like Bychkov won’t be leaving Prague any time soon. Last year, the conductor extended his contract with the orchestra to remain as its chief conductor and music director until 2028.

Tuesday’s concert at the Seoul Arts Center begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets range from 70,000 won ($51) to 280,000 won. Tickets are still available and can be purchased via tickets.interpark.com, or through Seoul Arts Center’s website, sac.or.kr.

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]