Czech Philharmonic ⬩ Kristian Bezuidenhout

If a Mahler symphony opens with a trumpet solo, one can be sure that one is listening to the Fifth. And this is not the only well-known motif from this beautiful work which has etched itself in the memories of audiences, including, of course, through its use by the great Italian director Luchino Visconti in his Death in Venice, a filmic adaptation of Thomas Mann’s existentialist novel of the same name. 

Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor has continued to inspire and thrill since its premiere 120 years ago in Cologne, so it is no surprise that the Prague public gave an exceptionally enthusiastic welcome to Semyon Bychkov’s carefully prepared performances in 2021. As the British music critic Norman Lebrecht said of the Orchestra’s recording of the Fifth with its Chief Conductor, “Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic are setting the pace for Mahler on record in this decade… I can find no flaw in this production. It is as gripping a Mahler Fifth as you will hear anywhere and that burnished Czech sound will linger long in the ear. The orchestra is immeasurably more virtuosic these days than it was in its previous Mahler cycle, nearly half a century ago with Vaclav Neumann, yet its ethos in Mahler remains inimitable.”

In the accompanying performances of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25, Australian pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout deserves no less attention. A world traveller based in London, he is a respected figure in the field of historically informed music making focusing on the era preceding Romanticism which reached its zenith with Mahler. To be more precise, Bezuidenhout prefers to describe his approach as “historically inspired”, meaning that he is not striving for historical “purism”, but for authenticity in terms of his own artistic conception of a work. It is an approach for which he has already received much acclaim including for his biggest recording project to date – Mozart’s complete piano music for Harmonia Mundi – which has won several international awards.