Wiener Philharmoniker
On March 28, 1842 Otto Nicolai conducted a 'grand concert' that was performed by all the members of the Royal and Imperial Court Opera. This 'Philharmonic Academy' is rightly considered to be the birth of the Wiener Philharmoniker, since, for the first time, all the principles of the 'philharmonic idea' were realized: only members of the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera (formerly Court Opera) are eligible to become members of the Wiener Philharmoniker; the orchestral has artistic, organizational and financial independence; all decisions are reached in a democratic way; and the actual administration is carried out by a twelve-member, democratically elected committee.

After twelve years of stagnation, the Wiener Philharmoniker gave its first subscription concert on January 15, 1860 under the direction of the opera director, Carl Eckert. The philharmonic concerts have continued, without interruption, ever since.

The only basic change took place in 1933 when a series of guest conductors replaced the system of choosing a conductor for a whole season. After Otto Dessoff systematically expanded the repertoire, Hans Richter, the legendary conductor of the Bayreuth premiere of Wagner's Ring der Nibelungen, succeeded in establishing the ensemble's worldwide reputation and incomparable tradition. Encounters with Wagner, Verdi, Bruckner, Brahms, Liszt and others, either as conductor or soloist, further enhanced this reputation. Gustav Mahler led the first concert of the orchestra outside of Austria, at the Paris World's Fair of 1900. Working together with Arturo Toscanini in the years 1933 -37 was another highlight. The close relationship with Richard Strauss was of great importance as far as music history was concerned. Between 1906 and 1944, he conducted numerous performances around the world and was bound with the orchestra in a sincere friendship.

At the beginning of World War II, the National Socialists immediately dismissed all Jewish artists from the Vienna State Opera. Only the intervention of Wilhelm Furtwängler brought the cancellation of an order to dissolve the philharmonic association. He also saved the 'half-Jews' and relatives of Jews from dismissal. The orchestra, however, mourned the deaths of six of its Jewish members who were murdered in concentration camps and that of a young violinist who was killed on the eastern front.

After the second World War, the Wiener Philharmoniker revived its connections to all major conductors. Collaboration with honorary conductors Karl Böhm and Herbert von Karajan, as well as honorary member Leonard Bernstein, hold special significance in the more recent history of the orchestra.

With its dominant role at the Salzburg Festival, or with the New Year's Concert, the orchestra succeeds again and again in setting accents of incomparable individuality. In any case, the Wiener Philharmoniker strive to realize the motto Ludwig van Beethoven wrote at the start of his 'Missa Solemnis': 'From the heart - may it in turn go to the heart!'

Semyon Bychkov
Born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in 1952, Semyon Bychkov was 20 when he won the Rachmaninov Conducting Competition. Two years later, having been denied his prize of conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra he left the former Soviet Union where, from the age of five, he had been singled out for an extraordinarily privileged education in music. First studying piano, Bychkov was then selected to study at the Glinka Choir School and received his first conducting lesson aged 13. Four years later he enrolled at the Leningrad Conservatory where he studied conducting with the legendary Ilya Musin.

By the time Bychkov returned to St Petersburg in 1989 as the Philharmonic’s Principal Guest Conductor, he had enjoyed success in the US as Music Director of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic. His international career, which had begun in France where he made his debuts with the Opera de Lyon and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, had taken off when a series of high-profile cancellations resulted in invitations to conduct the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 1989 he was named Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris; in 1997 Chief Conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne; and, the following year Chief Conductor of the Dresden Semperoper.

Semyon Bychkov’s approach to music making combines innate musicality with the rigours of Russian pedagogy. With his time carefully balanced between the concert hall and the opera house, Bychkov conducts repertoire that spans four centuries.

In the opera house Bychkov is recognised for his interpretation of Strauss, Wagner and Verdi. Nonetheless while Principal Guest Conductor of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino his productions of Janáček’s Jenufa, Schubert’s Fierrabras, Puccini’s La Bohème, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov were awarded the prestigious Premio Abbiati. Most recently Semyon Bychkov conducted Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina at the Vienna Staatsoper. In 2015 he will conduct Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House – his recording of the work was chosen by Opera Magazine as one of the 30 ‘all-time great recordings’; and, in 2016, Wagner’s Parsifal at Madrid’s Teatro Real. Bychkov’s symphonic engagements include annual tours with the Munich Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Vienna Philharmonic, as well as guest engagements with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI Torino, Orchestre National de France, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

In 1986, Bychkov signed with Philips and began a significant recording collaboration which produced an extensive discography with the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philharmonia, London Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris. These were later followed by a series of benchmark recordings, the result of his 13-year collaboration (1997-2010) with WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne. The repertoire includes a complete cycle of Brahms Symphonies, and works by Strauss (Elektra, Daphne, Ein Heldenleben, Metamorphosen, Alpensinfonie, Till Eulenspiegel), Mahler (Symphony No. 3, Das Lied von der Erde), Shostakovich (Symphonies No. 4, 7, 8, 10, 11), Rachmaninov, Verdi (Requiem), Detlev Glanert and York Höller. His recording of Lohengrin was voted BBC Music Magazine’s Record of the Year in 2010.

Semyon Bychkov currently holds the Klemperer Chair of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, and the Günter Wand Conducting Chair with the BBC Symphony Orchestra with whom he appears annually at the BBC Proms.