The mission of the Czech Philharmonic is not only intensive concert activity at home and abroad, but also the recording of current interpretations of classics and modern works for the present and future generations. For this reason, it realizes several recording projects each year for Czech and foreign recording labels.
The album of Dvořák's Legends and Rhapsodies brings a captivating combination of folk melodies and masterful orchestral colour in the performance of the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of conductor Tomáš Netopil.
This recording, made as part of the celebration of the Year of Czech Music 2024, presents a deep insight into Dvořák's lesser-known works, and confirms why the Czech Philharmonic is considered a leader in the interpretation of the Czech musical legacy.
Czech Philharmonic – Tomáš Netopil
In honour of the Year of Czech Music, the Czech Philharmonic and the Pentatone label have collaborated on a recording of Dvořák's Symphonies Nos. 7, 8 and 9.
The album is complemented by a cycle of overtures, In Nature, Carnival and Othello, which were written in the short interval between the last two symphonies.
Czech Philharmonic – Semyon Bychkov
The recording Czech Songs by Magdalena Kožená and the Czech Philharmonic, led by conductor Simon Rattle, presents cycles of folk songs by Czech authors and artists with Czech roots. You can listen to works by Bohuslav Martinů, Antonín Dvořák, Hans Krása and Gideon Klein. The album, released under the Pentatone label, is a cross-section of twentieth-century orchestral songwriting and a showcase of the best that the Czech musical cradle has to offer in this genre.
Czech Philharmonic – Magdalena Kožená, Simon Rattle
"It's like Verdi for the Italians," Semyon Bychkov sums up the importance of Smetana's music for the Czechs. And the symphonic poem Má Vlast dominates this national symbolism. In the new recording, which the Czech Philharmonic has made in cooperation with the Pentatone label, the chief conductor looks at the work in a new way, free from the trappings of tradition.
The album celebrates the bicentenary of Smetana's birth and the Year of Czech Music. How does one of Czech most famous works sound in a modern setting? See for yourself.
Czech Philharmonic – Semyon Bychkov
The CD Folk Songs by Magdalena Kožená and the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of conductor Simon Rattle brings together folk-inspired song cycles from across the globe. You can listen to pieces by Berio, Bartók, Ravel or Montsalvatge. The album, released under the Pentatone label, presents a cross-section of twentieth-century orchestral song composition.
Czech Philharmonic – Magdalena Kožená, Simon Rattle
The collaboration of the Czech Philharmonic under the direction of chief conductor Semyon Bychkov and the prestigious Pentatone label brings another gem from the Mahler cycle, this time the First Symphony.
Gustav Mahler once famously said that "a symphony should be like the world, it should encompass everything". And he has certainly succeeded in this work. A colourful world awaits you, full of animal sounds, hunting horns, country dances, klezmer bands and melodies of folk songs.
Czech Philharmonic – Semyon Bychkov
The Czech Philharmonic presents Mahler's Symphony No.2, the third CD in the Mahler cycle, produced in cooperation with the Pentatone label. The orchestra, under the direction of chief conductor and music director Semyon Bychkov, is joined by soprano Christiane Karg and violist Elisabeth Kulman, accompanied by the Prague Philharmonic Choir.
Already released recordings of both the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies have been enthusiastically received by critics and audiences alike. We dare say that Symphony No. 2, nicknamed "Resurrection", will meet the same fate. At least the first published reviews suggest so.
Czech Philharmonic – Semyon Bychkov
The second disc of the Czech Philharmonic's Mahler cycle under the baton of Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov will be released by Pentatone on Friday 14 October. The recording of Mahler's Fifth Symphony was made at the Rudolfinum Studio in December 2021. The collaboration between the Czech Philharmonic and Pentatone began with the release of Gustav Mahler's Fourth Symphony, which received extremely praise from critics. Thanks to this recording, the prestigious British music magazine Gramophone nominated the Czech Philharmonic for the title of Orchestra of the Year.
Czech Philharmonic – Semyon Bychkov
More than four decades after Neumann’s complete set, chief conductor Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic will offer a new look at the musical, emotional, and expressive power of Mahler’s symphonic works. The first taste of Mahler’s “polyphony of life” will the Fourth Symphony, in which an important part is played not only by varied instrumental colours, but also by the human voice, and specifically by the soprano voice of the Israeli singer Chen Reiss.
Czech Philharmonic – Semyon Bychkov
Chen Reiss
Decca Classics releases the Czech Philharmonic's recording of Dvořák’s Requiem, Biblical Songs and Te Deum. The Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor Jakub Hrůša leads soloists Ailyn Pérez, Christianne Stotijn, Michael Spyres and Jan Martiník together with the Prague Philharmonic Choir and Choirmaster Lukáš Vasilek in the Requiem, recorded at the 2017 Dvořák Prague International Music Festival, and Kateřina Kněžíková, Svatopluk Sem and the Prague Philharmonic Choir in the Te Deum. The late Jiří Bělohlávek, Hrůša’s teacher and Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic from 2012-2017, is heard in his last studio recording to be released by the Orchestra for Decca: the Biblical Songs sung by Czech bass and soloist of Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Jan Martiník.
Czech Philharmonic – Jiří Bělohlávek, Jakub Hrůša
Prague Philharmonic Choir – Lukáš Vasilek
The Czech Philharmonic's first major undertaking with now Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov – The Tchaikovsky Project – echieved its illustrious culmination in 2019.
Over the past seasons, since the project’s inception in 2015, the orchestra and conductor have been delving into exhaustive exploration of Tchaikovsky’s music. The first two recordings in the project, released on Decca in 2016 and 2017, have received wide critical acclaim and the year 2019 saw a series of Tchaikovsky residences in Tokyo, Vienna and Paris as well as at home in Prague. In August that year, Decca Classics released the complete boxset for The Tchaikovsky Project: all of the composer’s symphonies, the three piano concertos with soloist Kirill Gerstein, Romeo & Juliet, Serenade for Strings and Francesca da Rimini.
"If anything, Bělohlávek sounds even more fired-up [than on his previous recordings of these works]…His natural warmth and charm characteristically enchants the central scherzo’s prismatic textural..." —
One of the most important events in classical music this autumn will be the release of a recording of Bohuslav Martinů’s pastoral opera What Men Live By, wonderfully performed by Jiří Bělohlávek with the Czech Philharmonic and a whole host of important soloists. The world premiere recording will be released by Supraphon both on CD and in digital formats on 19th October 2018.
Bohuslav Martinů based the libretto for his pastoral opera on an English translation of Leo Tolstoy’s story Where Love Is, There God Is Also (1885). Instead of the original title referring to the Gregorian hymn Ubi caritas, Martinů chose the more universal title of a different Tolstoy story, What Men Live By. The opera was first heard in 1954 at the summer music course in Interlochen (Michigan). In 1955 the BBC considered producing the opera for television, but the idea did not come to fruition. This autumn at the Golden Prague International Television Festival, audiences finally got to see the premiere of a television version directed by Jiří Nekvasil.
Jiří Bělohlávek’s recording with the Czech Philharmonic is the first professional recording of this moving one-act opera by Bohuslav Martinů, and it may help the work regain the notice of opera companies. What Men Live By will be released together with Martinů’s Symphony No. 1, recorded in January 2016.
Jiří Bělohlávek and the Czech Philharmonic present Leoš Janáček’s most notable works.
This release continues the series of Jiří Bělohlávek’s last recordings of Czech masterworks for Decca Classics before he sadly passed away last year.
August 2018 marks 90 years since Janáček’s death in 1928. This album commemorates the great Czech composer with these informed recordings by the Czech conductor and orchestra.
This album features ‘The Fiddler’s Child’ – a new addition to the Decca catalogue.
Czech Philharmonic - Jiří Bělohlávek
Prague Philharmonic Choir - Lukáš Vasilek
Hibla Gerzmava / soprano
Veronika Hajnová / mezzo-soprano
Stuart Neill / tenor
Jan Martiník / bass
Aleš Bárta / organ
Recorded at the Rudolfinum in March 2013.
The iconic piece of Czech music, Bedřich Smetana's cycle of symphonic poems 'Má vlast', was recorded live by Jiří Bělohlávek and the Czech Philharmonic at concerts of the Prague Spring Festival. It is released as a part of the Bělohlávek: the last recordings series.
Czech Philharmonic – Jiří Bělohlávek
Recorded at the Municipal House in May 2014.
Premiere recording of the original English version of Bohuslav Martinů's oratorio for soloists, narrator, mixed chorus and orchestra.
Czech Philharmonic – Manfred Honeck
Lucy Crowe, Andrew Staples, Derek Welton, Jan Martiník, Simon Callow / soloists
Prague Philharmonic Choir, Lukáš Vasilek / choirmaster
Recorded at the Rudolfinum in January 2017.
The Tchaikovsky Project continues with the programmatic Manfred Symphony, an unfairly neglected piece that the composer wrote after Lord Byron's dramatic poem between his 4th and 5th symphony.
Czech Philharmonic – Semyon Bychkov
Recorded at the Rudolfinum in April 2017.
Antonín Dvořák's religious cantata Stabat Mater was recorded live at the concerts in March 2016, conducted by the Chief Conductor Jiří Bělohlávek.
Czech Philharmonic – Jiří Bělohlávek
Eri Nakamura, Elisabeth Kulman, Michael Spyres, Jongmin Park / soloists
Pražský filharmonický sbor, Lukáš Vasilek / choirmaster
Recorded at the Rudolfinum in 2016.
First part of the extensive Tchaikovsky recording project, in which the orchestra under the baton of Maestro Semyon Bychkov focused on the Romeo and Juliet overture, as well as Symphony No. 6 "Pathétique", one of the most powerful symphonic pieces ever written.
Czech Philharmonic – Semyon Bychkov
Recorded at the Rudolfinum in 2015-16.
Antonín Dvořák's orchestral cycle of sixteen songs inspired by the most popular folk Slavic dances recorded live at the concerts in Rudolfinum.
Czech Philharmonic – Jiří Bělohlávek
Recorded at the Rudolfinum in 2014-15
A box of five DVDs contains live recordings of performances of all nine symphonies by Antonín Dvořák. The complete set includes introductory remarks by Jiří Bělohlávek and Marek Eben between the individual movements of each symphony and also the documentary Nine Sketches of Antonín Dvořák by the director Barbara Willis Sweete.
Czech Philharmonic – Jiří Bělohlávek
Recorded 2012-14 at the Rudolfinum
Live recording of the opening concert of the 69th annual Prague Spring festival, which took place on 12 May 2014. A pivotal work of Czech musical Romanticism in a modern interpretation by the Czech Philharmonic, which is continuing its tradition of many years of recordings of this composition – My Country was the first work of which the Czech Philharmonic made a gramophone recording.
Czech Philharmonic – Jiří Bělohlávek
Tomáš Šimerda / director
An album presents contemporary interpretations of three masterpieces. Suk’s Fantasia in G Minor op. 24, Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A Minor op. 53 and Leoš Janáček’s violin concerto titled “The Wandering of a Little Soul”.
Josef Špaček / violin
Czech Philharmonic – Jiří Bělohlávek
This extensive project was realized from 2010 to 2014. There are live concert recordings of all ofDvořák’s symphonies and his Violin Concerto, and there are studio recordings of his piano and cello concertos.
Czech Philharmonic – Jiří Bělohlávek
Garrick Ohlsson / piano
Alisa Weilerstein / cello
Frank Peter Zimmermann / violin
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