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A Tale of Two Brothers: Conductors Semyon Bychkov and Yakov Kreizburg
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10960 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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6 / 1986 |
2,214 Words |
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David Eaton
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On February 23rd of this year, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra made an appearance at New York's Carnegie Hall under the baton of the orchestra's music director, Semyon Bychkov. The following week the American Symphony Orchestra appeared at Carnegie under the baton of guest conductor Yakov Kreizburg. What made these concerts especially noteworthy was that the two maestros are brothers. The two young Russians have traveled similar courses in pursuit of their artistic aspirations, and the music world will undoubtedly be hearing a great deal from these gifted conductors.
My first experience seeing Mr. Bychkov conduct came in 1981. At the time I was on a concert tour of college campuses that happened to take me to Grand Rapids, Michigan. During my stay there, the opening ceremonies for the Gerald R. Ford Museum were to take place, and to begin the proceedings the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra was to perform Wagner's Prelude to Die Meistersinger. Not having heard the Grand Rapids, Symphony prior to this occasion, I really wasn't expecting much from what I presumed would be a mediocre community group. From the very opening bars, however, it was apparent that this was no run-of-the-mill orchestra. This was a taut, incisive performance by an ensemble that obviously had been molded into a highly sensitive group whose music making commanded attention. At the time, the orchestra's music director, Semyon Bychkov, was relatively unknown in the international music community. Today, however, the mere mention of his name sparks immediate interest and speculation.
Rumors persist that Bychkov is the heir-apparent to succeed Herbert von Karajan as music director of the Berlin Philharmonic. Since it was von Karajan himself who mentioned Bychkov as one of two candidates who might possibly be his successor (the other was seventy-one-year-old Carlo Maria Guilini), it can be assumed that this is not merely a rumor. Bychkov has made a number of appearances as a guest conductor with the Berlin Philharmonic, and he has been well received by the critics and public alike. This season he became the first guest conductor in forty years to take the Berlin Philharmonic on tour, and he has recently recorded Shostakovitch's Fifth Symphony with the Berliners as well.
The widespread critical acclaim for Bychkov has not been due to his experiences with the Berliners alone. On several occasions he had made appearances as a last-minute replacement for conductors who became ill or were indisposed for various reasons. The fact that he mastered the basic orchestral repertory in the early stages of his development enabled him to step into these demanding situations and brilliantly conduct programs on just two or three days' notice. At age thirty-three he is on top of a career that seems destined for success.
As a student conductor at the renowned Leningrad Conservatory in the early 1970s, Bychkov seemed destined for success as well. He conducted his first opera at eighteen, and while still a student he won first prize in the Rachmaninoff Conducting Competition. For winning the competition he was invited to conduct the Leningrad Philharmonic. Just two days prior to the concert, however, the Soviet authorities deemed Bychkov politically unreliable, so he was not able to conduct. In the December 1985 issue of Symphony Magazine, in an article by Allan Kozinn, Bychkov stated: "I had never been a dissident. That honor I cannot claim. But I did not intend to become one of their political animals." Because he had been labeled "unreliable" by the
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