Semyon Bychkov conducts Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony at the Concertgebouw

Don't miss the opportunity to hear Semyon Bychkov conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra! On April 27, they'll be performing the astonishing Leningrad Symphony at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Get your tickets now!

Hear Shostakovich's monumental Leningrad Symphony

It was during the siege of Leningrad (now St Petersburg) by the Nazis that Shostakovich composed the bulk of his Symphony No. 7, a monumental, poignant requiem for a ravaged city and for the victims of totalitarian regimes everywhere. For conductor Semyon Bychkov, who was born and educated in that city, the Leningrad Symphony has great historical and personal significance.

Almost a year after Leningrad was taken, the symphony was performed in the besieged city by local musicians, most of whom had been temporarily released from service on the front. Thanks to loudspeakers placed along the trenches, even the Nazis themselves would have heard the concert. The symphony had profound symbolic significance for the Russians and garnered great international acclaim.

But later, there was criticism: Soviet officials found the work lacking in heroism, while Shostakovich was seen in the West as Stalin’s puppet. Today, the symphony is considered not so much a literal commentary on the siege of Leningrad as a fierce indictment of oppression and violence, and a most compelling requiem for their victims everywhere.

As a very young conductor, Semyon Bychkov faced opposition because his political ideas did not conform to the official Soviet line. "I wanted to be free to make my own decisions," he says. "And I wanted to be free not to lie." Bychkov emigrated to the United States in 1974. Ten years later, he conducted the Concertgebouw Orchestra for the very first time - the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration.

For further information, please visit the Concertgebouw Orchestra website.

Conductor - Semyon Bychkov

As a pupil of the legendary Ilya Musin, Semyon Bychkov belongs to the select group of great conductors who were trained at the Leningrad (now St Petersburg) Conservatory.  

In 1975, Bychkov moved to the United States to build up an international career free of the limitations of the Soviet regime. He made his name as the music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Later, he became chief conductor of the Orchestre de Paris, the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, and the Semperoper in Dresden. Since the 2018-2019 season, he has been the chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he is working on a complete Mahler cycle.  

Bychkov is regularly invited by orchestras such as the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the symphony orchestras of Chicago and San Francisco. He holds the Klemperer Chair of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and the Gunther Wand Chair with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The International Opera Awards named Semyon Bychkov 2015’s Conductor of the Year.  

Apart from the symphonic repertoire, opera plays an important part in his career. In 2003, Bychkov made his debut in Covent Garden with Elektra by Richard Strauss. He conducts its productions with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Opéra de Paris, the Viennese State Opera, the Scala in Milan and the Salzburg Festival. In August 2024, he conducted Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Bayreuth Festival. 

He has been a very regular guest of the Concertgebouw Orchestra since 1984, most recently in June 2023 with Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony and the Dutch premiere of Glanert’s Prague Symphony. 

Concert programme

• Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 7, "Leningrad"

Performers

• Semyon Bychkov - Conductor
• The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra was founded in 1888. Its distinctive sound has made it one of the world’s leading orchestras. 

The orchestra is famous for its renditions of works by Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and Anton Bruckner, and for its long-standing concert traditions such as the St Matthew Passion in the week before Easter and the Christmas Matinee. It has always worked closely with contemporary composers.

The Concertgebouw Orchestra has had just seven chief conductors to date. The eighth was announced in June 2022: Klaus Mäkelä joined as artistic partner in the 2022-23 season and will become chief conductor in 2027. The coming season sees five extraordinary programmes with Klaus Mäkelä at the helm. 

Buy your tickets

Buy your tickets in advance on the Concertgebouw Orchestra website and get to experience one of the top orchestras in the Netherlands playing in the acoustical wonder that is the Concertgebouw. Plus, drinks are included in the ticket price - book your tickets today!