Fifty years ago Semyon Bychkov, then in his early twenties and a conductor of noted promise, emigrated from the Soviet Union to the US. Who could have predicted at that time how radically the political landscape and musical life in Europe would change in the next half a century?
Now Bychkov is chief conductor and music director of the Czech Philharmonic, a team that has become a regular visitor to the UK. Freed from the restrictions that held back artistic groups behind the Iron Curtain, the Czechs have taken their rightful place among the great orchestras of the world.
One thing, though, happily remains the same. While some orchestras have lost their distinctive sound quality (Amsterdam and Leipzig come to mind), the Czech Philharmonic retains its wonderfully cultured poise, silken strings binding together a well-balanced ensemble.
This tour offered two complementary concerts. The first was all-Shostakovich, tapping into Bychkov’s roots and marking the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death in 1975, the year Bychkov left Russia. The other featured the Symphony No 5 by Mahler, who was born in Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic.
Shostakovich’s Symphony No 5 was far from the tense, gritty, attacking performances that often came out of the Soviet Union. Bychkov likes to give his players elbow room, finding a flexibility of pace and colour in the symphony beyond the norm. He also draws a notable depth of tone from his orchestras and the most distinctive moments here had a dark, weighty gravity of utterance. It is not the only way to play Shostakovich, but this performance was of high quality.
The Mahler was similar in outline, though the platform was now full to bursting with musicians. The Barbican is not an ideal acoustic for big orchestras, as it is prone to overload in volume, but under Bychkov the orchestra sounded rich and resonant, never forced. So expansive is his style of conducting that it is easy to assume he favours slow speeds, but there were passages here where the music bowled along. Expression and excitement were held in balance.
In the Shostakovich concert the symphony was preceded by the Cello Concerto No 1, played by Sheku Kanneh-Mason. The giant shadow of Mstislav Rostropovich, for whom the concerto was written, will always hang over this work and Kanneh-Mason does not try to equal his predecessor’s superhuman presence. This was intimate Shostakovich, inward-looking, touchingly contemplative, the listener peering into a private world.
The Mahler was paired with Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos, cleansing the palate before the highly coloured symphony. Sisters Katia and Marielle Labèque gave it tough love, though thanks to years of playing as a duo they sailed through the challenging passages where the pianists have to rattle off rapid scales in unison. With a much-reduced band of players, Bychkov gave them warm-hearted support in the Czech Philharmonic’s finest tradition.
★★★★☆
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