ORQUESTA FILARMÓNICA CHECA
MAO FUJITA, piano
SEMYON BYCHKOV, director
Smetana, La novia vendida:
Obertura, Furiant, y Danza de los comediantes
Strauss, Burleske para piano
Rachmaninov, Danzas Sinfónicas
SALE OF SINGLE TICKETS: From July 30, 2026.
CZECH PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Gramophone Orchestra of the Year in 2024, the Czech Philharmonic is one of the world’s leading orchestras and the Czech Republic’s foremost cultural ambassador. In its 131st season, it combines a deeply rooted musical tradition and expands its international presence through tours, residencies and recordings.
During the Czech Music Year 2024, the orchestra and its Chief Conductor and Music Director, Semyon Bychkov, gave a three-day residency at Carnegie Hall. That same year Smetana’s Má vlast received BBC Music Magazine’s 2025 Orchestral Award. Alongside Czech repertoire, the orchestra has a long relationship with composers such as Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Mahler, which has resulted in a series of benchmark recordings, including The Tchaikovsky Project (2019) and a Mahler symphony cycle (2026). An upcoming release includes Shostakovich’s Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7.
In Prague they open their 131st season with Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1, with their Artist-in-Residence Janine Jansen, alongside Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony. They have a tour to Stockholm, Helsinki and Lucerne, and residencies in London, Vienna and Hamburg.
With Bychkov, the repertoire includes Má vlast and works by Mussorgsky, Ravel, Adams, Strauss, Glanert and Britten, as well as a special focus on Rachmaninoff. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, performed with the Prague Philharmonic Choir, will commemorate the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death in 2027.
Chief Conductor and Music Director Designate Jakub Hrůša and Principal Guest Conductor Sir Simon Rattle return alongside guest conductors such as Vasily Petrenko, David Robertson, Elim Chan, Maxim Emelyanchev and Daniel Harding. Guest soloists include Yuja Wang, Behzod Abduraimov, Mao Fujita, Yunchan Lim, Seong-Jin Cho, Karen Gomyo, Radek Baborák, Fleur Barron and Kirill Gerstein.
Its distinguished history reflects its central European location and the country’s complex political past. A pioneer in promoting the music of Martinů and Janáček, it gave its first concert in 1896 with a programme devoted entirely to Dvořák and conducted by the composer himself. Alongside its commitment to Czech creators, the orchestra’s belief in the transformative power of music remains a guiding principle: its educational programmes involve more than 400 schools across the country, support young musicians and promote social inclusion.
Mao Fujita. Piano
With an innate musical sensitivity, 26-year-old pianist Mao Fujita made his U.S. debut at Carnegie Gall in 2023, impressing critics, and The New York Times took note of his debut.
He was born and studied in Tokyo, and in 2017 he won First Prize at the prestigious Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Switzerland, along with the Audience Prize, the Prix Modern Times and the Prix Coup de Coeur. In 2019 he won the Silver Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
In the 2025/26 season, Fujita continues his impressive trajectory at major festivals and concert halls around the world, including concerts at the Salzburg Festival, Vienna, Paris, Rome, Luxembourg, Hamburg, Dortmund, Gstaad, Warsaw, Tenerife, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Lyon and Aix-en-Provence, as well as a recital tour of the U.S. with performances in New York, Cleveland, Boston, Minnesota, San Francisco, Vancouver and San Diego. Notable are tours in Asia and Europe with the Filarmonica della Scala (Chung), Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (Järvi), Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (van Zweden) and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (V. Petrenko). In addition, he will make his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, as well as with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and will return to the Czech Philharmonic, Gewandhausorchester, Wiener Symphoniker, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI.
He has worked with conductors of the stature of Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Elim Chan, Myung-Whun Chung, Christoph Eschenbach, Daniele Gatti, Manfred Honeck, Jakub Hrůša, Marek Janowski, Andris Nelsons, Petr Popelka, Lahav Shani and Kazuki Yamada.
As a chamber musician he collaborates with Renaud Capuçon, Leonidas Kavakos, Emanuel Ax, Kirill Gerstein, Antoine Tamestit, Kian Soltani and the Hagen Quartet.
Fujita is an exclusive Sony Classical artist. His latest recording, ‘72 Preludes’, includes the 24 Preludes by Chopin, Scriabin and Yashiro, and was released in 2024. His debut album came in 2022, performing the Complete Mozart Piano Sonatas.
At the age of three he began playing the piano and won his first international prize in 2010 at the World Classic in Taiwan.
Fujita has been a member of the Konzerthaus Dortmund’s “Junge Wilde” series since the 24/25 season.
SEMYON BYCHKOV. Director
Semyon Bychkov marked the Czech Philharmonic’s 130th anniversary in 2026 with extensive tours in Asia and Europe and with PENTATONE’s release of the nine Mahler symphonies. In the 2026/2027 season he returns to the repertoire of his formative years and, alongside the Czech masters, will conduct works by Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff and Mussorgsky.
Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) in 1952, he emigrated to the United States in 1975 and, since the mid-1980s, has lived in Europe. He enjoyed success as music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic and, after a series of high-profile cancellations that led to engagements with the New York and Berlin Philharmonics and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, he returned as principal guest conductor of the St Petersburg Philharmonic in 1989. He was appointed music director of the Orchestre de Paris (1989); chief conductor of WDR Cologne (1997); and chief conductor of the Semperoper Dresden (1998). From August 2026, Bychkov will be music director designate of the Paris Opera, assuming the post of music director in 2028.
Bychkov conducts in all the major opera houses, including La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In Europe he is a frequent guest of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Munich, Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Orchestre National de France and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; while in the United States he conducts the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras. The warmth of Bychkov’s relationships is particularly reflected in the honorary titles he holds at the Royal Academy of Music and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, which he conducts regularly at the BBC Proms.
Semyon Bychkov was named Conductor of the Year by the International Opera Awards (2015) and by Musical America (2022).
