The Czech Philharmonic’s 127^th season launches on 28 September with Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov marking the start of his fifth year at the helm. The season opens with Strauss’s Alpine Symphony and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major with soloist Lisa Batiashvilli. Beethoven returns later in the autumn, when the Orchestra joins forces with the Czech Philharmonic Youth Orchestra for a second collaboration with Bychkov, this time in celebration of Bychkov’s 70^th birthday when the programme will pair Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5.

In addition to the world premières of new commissions from Detlev Glanert (Prague Symphony) and Thierry Escaich (Piano Concerto) which were initiated at the start of his tenure, this season will see Bychkov will conduct Dvořák’s Rusalka, his first opera with the Czech Philharmonic. With Asmik Grigorian in the title role, Rusalka will be presented as part of the Dvořák Prague International Music Festival. The three concert performances will take place shortly after Bychkov leads the Orchestra at the 2022 Prague Sounds Festival held on the banks of the Vltava River to mark the Czech Republic’s EU Council Presidency.