Ambassador of Czech Music

An Ambassador of Czech Music in England and in the world

Although Bělohlávek’s main focus in the 1990s and early 2000s was the Prague Philharmonia where he was Chief Conductor, it was also a time when he established contacts and developed collaboration abroad. One of his main destinations became the UK.

The British audience became acquainted with Bělohlávek in the mid-1980s when he conducted the Czech Philharmonic at the Celebration of Czech and Slovak Music Festival on 23 October 1985. Dvořák’s Sixth Symphony in D, op. 60 and Martinů’s Memorial to Lidice were on the programme. [ 2 ] In 1988 he was a guest conductor in Swansea with the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra and in 1989 with the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester. In 1991 he made a major tour with the Czech Philharmonic which was dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Dvořák’s birth. Beside Bělohlávek as Chief Conductor, the conductor Libor Pešek also took part in the tour. The concerts were held in Glasgow, Nottingham, Cardiff, Leeds, Dublin and three times at London’s Barbican Hall. Two concerts of 24 and 25 September at the Barbican were conducted by Bělohlávek featuring Dvořák’s overture Othello, Cello Concerto and Sixth Symphony in D.

Two years later, on 2 October 1993, Bělohlávek conducted the opening concert of the Czech Festival at the Royal Festival Hall where the Czech Philharmonic performed Smetana’s Má vlast (My Fatherland). He conducted two more concerts within the same festival on 19 and 26 October 1993.

The high quality of his performance led to numerous offers of guest conducting and therefore Bělohlávek collaborated in the following years with the BBC Philharmonic, the London Philharmonia Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. With the last orchestra he performed two concerts in January 1995: Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante and Martinů’s Epic of Gilgamesh featuring Eva Urbanová, Ľudovit Ludha, Dalibor Tolaš, Peter Mikuláš, Jack Shepherd and the BBC Choir on 28 January; and on 31 January Dvořák’s Serenade in d, op. 44, Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 23 played by Ivan Moravec and Suk’s Serenade in E flat, op. 6.

The level of mutual understanding with the BBC Symphony Orchestra was extraordinary already at first meetings: “My first contact with the orchestra suddenly created a very close professional symbiosis that implied further contacts. And the orchestra’s management rose to the occasion and invited me as their principal guest conductor.” [ 3 ]

Already in September 1995, Bělohlávek became Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra with a contract for three years. Practically, it meant work in the studio, tours, four concerts at the Royal Festival Hall (and later at the Barbican Hall) and two concerts at the Proms every season.

In the first season, Bělohlávek focused on Czech music, however, not on the best-known pieces such as Vltava or the New World Symphony, but pieces that had not been performed in the UK for a long time or ever (Dvořák’s symphonic poems, Janáček’s Taras Bulba, various compositions by Martinů) and works by contemporary Czech authors (Petr Eben’s Nocturne and compositions by Luboš Fišer and Ivan Kurz). In the following seasons he would combine the Czech repertoire (Fibich, Novák, Suk, Smetana) with works of other composers (Shostakovich, Brahms, Schubert, Mahler, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and more).

Bělohlávek played a key role in including the work of Bohuslav Martinů into London’s Festival of Twentieth Century Music organized every year by BBC Radio. In 1998 the festival’s focus was the musical legacy of Bohuslav Martinů, and its rich programme offered concerts, lectures, panel discussions, exhibitions and master classes given by Ivan Štraus and Bělohlávek. Two concert performances of the opera The Greek Passion by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Bělohlávek crowned the whole festival.

Bělohlávek promoted Czech music not only by performing the music of Czech composers, but also by inviting Czech and Slovak musicians to perform in London. Already at the very first concert as Principal Guest Conductor on 1 February 1996 at the Royal Festival Hall, he performed Martinů’s Fourth Piano Concerto with Igor Ardašev. Later that year in August, he invited Ivan Kusnjer to perform Dvořák’s Te Deum and Martinů’s Field Mass. The pianist Jan Simon joined Bělohlávek on 13 November 1997 to play the Piano Concerto No. 1 by the Prague composer and pianist Erwin Schulhoff.

Czech repertoire could be heard also at Bělohlávek’s master classes at the prestigious summer school and festival in Dartington in southwest England that combined professionals and amateur enthusiasts. Bělohlávek was a guest here three times. In 1999, a Czech Week was organized within the festival with masterclasses of the Panocha Quartet and the final concert conducted by Bělohlávek.

As both the orchestra and the conductor were satisfied with the collaboration, the BBC SO renewed the contract for another three years until the end of 2000. Bělohlávek was pleased with the good relationship he had with the orchestra and in one interview he said: “The orchestra has a reputation of an obstinate, not exactly submissive ensemble with complicated relationships. However, I have never felt this myself, we have always been on very friendly terms, despite me being exacting and never coming down from my requirements of high quality. Maybe that’s what they appreciated.” [ 4 ]

Even after the contract ended, Bělohlávek continued to collaborate with the orchestra regularly once or twice a year. In May 2002 at the Barbican Concert Hall, they performed together Schoenberg’s sextet Verklärte Nacht and Mahler’s Song of the Earth with the German mezzosoprano Petra Lang and the tenor Keith Lewis from New Zealand. In July 2002 they performed together works by Stravinsky, Schumann, Brahms and Dvořák at a festival in Bad Kissingen. In August 2004, they performed Janáček’s Sinfonietta and Dvořák’s Spectre’s Bride at the BBC Proms, with Anda-Louise Bogza (soprano), Peter Straka (tenor), Ivan Kusnjer (bass-baritone) and the BBC Symphony Chorus.

In the middle of 2004, Bělohlávek received the offer to become the chief conductor. The BBC SO orchestra management had been looking for a candidate with the help of a ten-member committee including three orchestra members for a year and a half already. Out of all short-listed candidates, the whole committee suggested Bělohlávek. He met all the requirements – he had an excellent international profile, a wide-ranging repertoire including contemporary music, experience with long-term work with one ensemble, he did not behave like a super-star, was affordable and, last but not least, he was very popular with members of the orchestra. In London, he won everyone’s favour by his modest and unpretentious behaviour.

After six months of negotiations in which the conductor and the management clarified mutual expectations, Bělohávek gladly accepted. In February 2005, the new chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra was announced. Bělohlávek had a task before him that he described in an interview: “…six visits a year, with public concerts, studio sessions, tours and Proms. I think it's quite a strong load. It's not overwhelming to the extent that it would make impossible my involvement in opera and some guest conducting, but it is a fair chunk of the work that the orchestra does.” [ 6 ]

Bělohlávek's decision to take up the post was made easier by the fact that he had no long-term commitments with another orchestra for the following years. The offer from the BBC came shortly after his resignation from the post of music director and chief conductor designate of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, which he held in the 2003/2004 season. He resigned following disagreements with the Ministry of Culture of Slovakia which had failed to provide the promised financial support.

Bělohlávek became the twelfth chief conductor in the history of BBC SO. He was appointed for three years, and his agenda included planning the repertoire and tours abroad, deciding about staff and orchestra members, and of course enhancing the orchestra’s sound quality.

Since its foundation, the orchestra’s mission was twofold: to focus on and promote contemporary music and in this way support contemporary composers from Britain and elsewhere and to provide a meeting point for various contemporary musical directions on the one hand; and to cultivate the art of interpretation of traditional repertoire on the other. The latter was Bělohlávek’s main task – to take care of and enhance the interpretation of classical, romantic and twentieth century music with an emphasis on Czech music and to develop the orchestra’s sound quality: “We will be trying to raise the standards of playing even higher.” [ 7 ]

Bělohlávek was of the opinion – and not only in connection with the BBC SO – that ensemble, work of orchestra sections, phrasing and melody lines, colours and contrasts can be best studied on Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler or Strauss.

Within the area of Czech music, Bělohlávek could focus on wider presentation of Czech authors than he could when he had been guest conducting. All Martinů’s symphonies, major works by Josef Suk and symphonic, chamber and opera pieces by Dvořák and Smetana were included in the following seasons.

Apart from the Czech focus, Bělohlávek presented music of other composers. He often included the music of Beethoven, Mahler, Haydn, Russian romantics, and English composers. Elgar’s Cello Concerto and the concert overture In the South grew especially close to his heart. He also premiered works of contemporary music, one of which was Michael Tippett’s Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli for strings that Bělohlávek especially liked and performed on a tour in China, or Jonathan Dove’s Hojoki based on the meditations of a medieval Japanese monk or John Tavener’s Beautiful Names inspired by the ninety-nine names of God in the Quran.

In the 2005/2006 season, Bělohlávek had the title Principal Conductor Designate and performed frequently with the orchestra so that the collaboration was not so different from an actual “chief conducting” season. On 22 October 2005, Bělohlávek had the inauguration concert at the Barbican which attracted unprecedented media attention. The programme was bold – the British premiere of Elliott Carter’s Reflexion, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 5 in E flat with Emanuel Ax, Strauss’s tone poem Death and Transfiguration and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. The performance was well received, and many reviews saw it as a great promise for the future.

Officially, Bělohlávek became Chief Conductor at the opening concert of the BBC Proms on 14 July 2006 featuring overtures and arias from Mozart’s Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro, Smetana’s Vltava, Dvořák’s Te Deum and Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 5. Bělohlávek had three more concerts at the Proms that year, the second of which was truly special as it celebrated the eightieth birthday of Queen Elisabeth II who was present together with her husband Prince Philip. They performed the world premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies’s composition A Little Birthday Music, Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major and Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony.

Bělohlávek toured Asia with the BBC SO in the autumn of the same year. They visited South Korea, China, Singapore, and Malaysia. The ten concerts featured a varied programme including works by Dvořák, Elgar, Janáček, Smetana, Shostakovich, Mozart and Richard Strauss.

Their first concert in 2007 featured the concert performance of Janáček’s opera The Excursions of Mr. Brouček. The cast was Czech and Slovak: the role of Matěj Brouček was performed by Jiří Vacík and other roles by Peter Straka, Maria Kobielska (Haan), Lenka Šmídová, Roman Janál and Aleš Briscein. A recording of this concert was released in January 2008 on Deutsche Grammophon and was as well received as the concert itself. The CD got an award from Gramophone magazine and the MIDEM Classical Award 2009 at the international music fair in Cannes.

The following concert with the BBC Symphony Orchestra was operatic as well. On 17 March 2007, overtures and arias from operas by Mozart, Rossini, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Berlioz and Glinka sounded in the Barbican Concert Hall. Vocalists and instrumentalists were international: the guitarist Richard Simpson, Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, English mezzosoprano Sarah Connolly and clarinettist Richard Hosford.

In the summer of 2007, Bělohlávek appeared at the Proms again and conducted the opening concert on 13 July, two concerts in August and the Last Night of the Proms on 8 September. One of the concerts in August featured Czech music – Martinů’s Piano Concerto no. 4 performed by Ivo Kahánek. In the one hundred and eleven years of the Proms, Bělohlávek had been the first conductor whose native tongue was not English who was asked to conduct the Last Night of the Proms. Traditionally, the conductor gives a speech within the concert and Bělohlávek even included a short salutation in Czech: „Speciální pozdrav posílám všem mým drahým v Čechách, na Moravě a na Slovensku.“ (“I am sending a special greeting to all my dear ones in Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia.”) The varied programme consisting of instrumental pieces and opera arias was dominated by Anna Netrebko. Her rendition of the song Meine Lippen sie küssen so heiss (My lips kiss so hot) from Franz Lehár's last operetta Giuditta was literally captivating and Netrebko, in addition to her phenomenal singing, also showed her talent for expressive acting.

Shortly before the Last Night of the Proms, General Manager of the BBC Symphony Orchestra Paul Hughes announced the extension of Bělohlávek’s contract until 2012. This was a clear recognition of Bělohlávek's work and good relationships with the orchestra members.

At BBC SO concerts in December, another Czech composer was presented. Bohuslav Foerster’s Violin Concerto in d minor op. 10 was performed on 4 December and his Violin Concerto no. 1 in c minor op. 88 four days later. Ivan Ženatý played the solo part.

As is the habit with the BBC SO, both concertos were recorded and in co-operation between the BBC Radio 3 and the Czech label Supraphon released on a CD in 2008.

In the spring of 2008, Bělohlávek and the orchestra went on tour of Continental Europe. They toured Germany with stops in Mannheim, Hannover, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, and Cologne. They also gave two concerts at the Prague Spring Festival. On 31 May they played Miloslav Kabeláč’s Seventh Symphony, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 performed by Elisabeth Leonskaja, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6, and as encores Britten’s Storm interlude from the opera Peter Grimes and Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance in A flat major. On the following day, 1 June 2008, the programme included Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem, Op. 20, and Suk's Asrael, which was a clear choice for Bělohlávek - it is one of the greatest symphonic works of Czech music, extremely beautiful and at the same time a show-off piece of orchestral qualities. Skočná from Smetana’s Bartered Bride, one of Dvořák's Slavonic Dances and Elgar's March No. 1 were on the encores list.

Both concerts and their performers had received great publicity and everyone had been awaiting the concerts with great expectations. And these expectations were satisfied and even surpassed by Bělohlávek and the orchestra.

The British musicians had also other plans in Prague than music. On Sunday morning, selected members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra took on the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra in a football match. Teams consisting of five players and a goalkeeper on each side fought on the artificial turf of the TJ Hanspaulka field. The Czech Orchestra won 5:1. Such a football match was a unique event in the history of the Prague Spring Festival.

The summer months belonged again to the Proms, where Bělohlávek conducted four concerts. The opening concert on 18 July offered works by Richard Strauss, W. A. Mozart, O. Messiaen, L. van Beethoven, Elliott Carter and A. N. Scriabin. On 23 July they played Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Johannes Brahms. In August, they performed the first series of Dvořák's Slavonic Dances and, in the second part of the concert, a concert performance of Janáček's opera The Fate with Štefan Margita in the role of the composer Živný. On 31 August, Verdi's Requiem was performed at the Royal Albert Hall.

One of the memorable concert events of 2009 was the performance of Suk’s Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra with Ivan Ženatý, Mahler’s Lieder with Dagmar Pecková and Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony in January.

In March 2009, a concert performance of Martinů’s opera Julietta at the Barbican was recorded by BBC Radio 3 and broadcast on 31 March in the UK and on 6 April by the Czech Radio (Vltava). The role of Julietta was sung by Magdalena Kožená and of Michel by William Burden. The performance was very well received, and the reviewers did not spare words of praise especially for Jiří Bělohlávek and Magdalena Kožená. The extraordinary impression the concert made is testified by the fact that in 2010 the BBC SO received the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award in the opera and musical theatre category for it. It became the first orchestra ever to be awarded in this category.

The 2009/2010 season was significant as far as the promotion of Martinů’s work is concerned. Bělohlávek performed all six of Martinů’s symphonies which was the first time ever the complete set had been performed in front of the British audience. The series began with Symphony No.1 on 3 October 2009 and finished seven months later, on 8 May 2010 with Symphony No. 6 performed at the Barbican Centre. All the performances were highly praised and were among the highlights of Bělohlávek’s promotion of Czech music in England.

Live recordings of all the concerts were used for a set of three CDs released on the Onyx label in September 2011. The extraordinary quality of the CD set called Martinů The 6 Symphonies was confirmed by several nominations and awards. It was even short-listed for the Grammy Award in February 2012, and in September 2012 it received the Gramophone Award for the best orchestral recording.

Apart from the four concerts that he conducted, Bělohlávek had a new role at the Proms 2009. At the Last Night of the Proms on 12 September he became one of the players. However, his instrument was not the cello, as would seem logical considering his studies at the Prague Conservatoire, but a vacuum cleaner. The second half of the evening was opened by Malcolm Arnold’s A Grand, Grand Overture for three vacuum cleaners, one floor polisher and four rifles. Bělohlávek, the violinist Jennifer Pike and pianist Stephen Hough took up the parts of the vacuum cleaners, and Sir David Attenborough played the floor polisher. The BBC Symphony Orchestra and the soloists were conducted by David Robertson.

A recording of all five of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos with Paul Lewis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra for the Harmonia Mundi label were a significant musical event of the 2009/2010 season. The concertos were recorded in July and November 2009 and March 2010 at BBC Maida Vale Studios and Air Studios in London. The three-CD set was released in July 2010. On it, one can hear the orchestra with two protagonists for whom interpretation is a service to the composer and music itself and not a showy manifestation of their own musical abilities.

In May 2010, Bělohlávek went on his second Asian tour with the BBC Symphony Orchestra visiting Japan, South Korea, China, and Taiwan. They played Tippett, Sibelius, Brahms, Mozart, Prokofiev, Debussy and Czech composers Smetana and Julius Fučík.

The summer was traditionally dedicated to the Proms. At the opening concert, Bělohlávek conducted Mahler’s monumental Symphony of a Thousand. On 21 July, Bělohlávek and Paul Lewis presented a part of their month-long work together when they played Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto. On 8 August, Bělohlávek conducted Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, and at the Last Night of the Proms on 11 September the orchestra, choirs and soloists (the soprano Renée Fleming and the violinist Maxim Rysanov) performed a whole range of shorter compositions including arias such as Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém from Dvořák’s Rusalka.

In May 2011, Bělohlávek introduced another Czech opera to the English audience. At London’s Barbican, they performed Smetana’s Bartered Bride. A live recording was made of the concert performance released in 2012 on the Harmonia Mundi label.

At the opening night of the 117th BBC Proms on 15 July 2011, Bělohlávek conducted Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass. The solo parts were sung by the soprano Hibla Gerzmava, mezzosoprano Dagmar Pecková, tenor Stefan Vinke and bass-baritone Jan Martiník. David Goode played the organ.

Bělohlávek and the BBC Symphony Orchestra appeared once again at the 2011 Proms on 20 July with a programme of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto played by Jean‐Guihen Queyras and Smetana’s complete cycle Má vlast (My Fatherland) which was played without intermission.

In October, the conductor and his orchestra went on a tour of Spain with stops in San Sebastian, Pamplona, Zaragoza, Madrid, Valladolid and Bilbao. This was followed by a tour of Germany in November with concerts in Dortmund, Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Cologne.

In February 2012, they gave yet another concert performance of an opera, this time of Dvořák’s Jakobín. The singing cast was predominantly Czech and Slovak: Julia was sung by Dana Burešová, Bohuš by Svatopluk Sem and Jiří by Aleš Voráček. Jaroslav Březina, Lucie Fišer Silkenová, Aleš Jenis, Jozef Benci and Jan Martiník appeared in other roles. The performance received once again positive reviews, and one critic praised Bělohlávek’s contribution: “How fortunate we are in London to at last have a proper connection to Czech repertoire through Bělohlávek. His role in promoting Janáček, Martinů, Smetana, Suk, and Dvořák is inestimable, because his approach is so idiomatic, non-anglicized and extremely perceptive. We’re into a whole new era of appreciating Czech music.”
[ 27 ]

Towards the end of Bělohlávek’s position with the BBC SO, they together appeared once again in front of Czech audience. Similarly to 2008, they gave two concerts at the Prague Spring Festival 2012. The first of the two concerts consisted of compositions by Michael Tippett, Maurice Ravel, and of Suk’s Ripening in the second half.

The second concert on 21 May offered a piece by the name of C for orchestra by a young Czech composer Jiří Kadeřábek, which the BBC commissioned at Bělohlávek’s suggestion, and then Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major, Op.77 performed by Ivan Ženatý and Bohuslav Martinů’s Symphony No.4.

One significant event took place in the morning of the day of one of the Prague Spring concerts. Bělohlávek received the Order of the British Empire at the British Embassy in Prague from Ambassador Sian MacLeod. The title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire was conferred on him by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his remarkable achievements. Bělohlávek commented on it several months later: “When I found out, my thoughts were ‘sic transit gloria mundi’, however I was pleased and appreciated it. I don’t want to search for the instigator, but I take it as recognition of my activities in Britain and I consider it a commitment to keep the relationships between the British and Czech culture in good shape and alive.” [ 30 ]

After Prague, more continental concerts followed, two concerts in Bad Kissingen among others. Bělohlávek had performed in this spa town frequently, with the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, with the PKF – Prague Philharmonia as well as the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Bělohlávek completed his six-year long era with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Last Night of the Proms on 8 September 2012. A touching moment happened when people standing in the auditorium sang the traditional farewell song Auld Lang Syne for Bělohlávek. Having pinned the Order of the British Empire conferred on him by Queen Elisabeth II on his suit, Bělohlávek received enthusiastic cheering from the audience. He also greeted everyone at home by waving a Czech flag. In addition to songs, arias from Verdi’s operas and other pieces, they also performed Suk’s march Into a New Life in a version for orchestra and voices, which alluded both to the fact that London hosted the Olympics that year and that Bělohlávek had a new professional and personal chapter before him – the post of the chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic.

Jiří Bělohlávek at the BBC Proms 2012

Last Night of the BBC Proms 2012 / Land of hope and glory

Last Night of the BBC Proms 2012 / God save the Queen

Last Night of the BBC Proms 2012 / British Sea-Songs

Last Night of the BBC Proms 2012 / John Williams – Olympic Fanfare and Theme

Last Night of the BBC Proms 2012 / Edward Elgar – Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1

After he ceased to be the chief conductor, the BBC Symphony Orchestra continued to have a very warm and active relationship with Bělohlávek. He was given the title of Conductor Laureate and together with it the self-understood duty of conducting the orchestra at least once in a season. The orchestra’s management was especially interested in the continuance of opera concert performances. Bělohlávek’s suggestion of Smetana’s Dalibor was accepted, and the opera was performed in May 2015 in the Barbican Concert Hall with Czech singers (Richard Samek, Ivan Kusnjer, Aleš Voráček, Dana Burešová, Alžběta Poláčková, Svatopluk Sen, and Jan Šťáva) in the leading roles and the BBC Singers under Kenneth Richardson.

This performance of the opera was recorded and preserved for future generations on a CD released in 2015 by the Onyx label.

In 2016, another opera concert performance took place, this time it was Janáček’s The Makropulos Affair. The BBC Symphony Orchestra together with Bělohlávek, Karita Mattila in the leading role, and other Czech soloists gave a concert within the BBC Proms on 19 August 2016 in the Royal Albert Hall.

Bělohlávek’s last concert with the BBC SO was the performance of Dvořák's Requiem on 13 April 2017, which turned out to be a literally symbolic farewell to the orchestra, less than two months before Bělohlávek passed away.

When assessing his cooperation with the BBC Symphony, and indeed all English orchestras, Bělohlávek repeatedly mentioned three qualities of the ensembles and the music industry: perfect preparedness of all orchestra members, flexibility of ensembles and sense of fair play.

Bělohlávek’s English era was successful also in respect to recording. Together with the BBC Symphony Orchestra they made many highly esteemed recordings for world-class labels, many of them mentioned above. In 2006, it was a recording of Dvořák’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies for Warner Music. In 2007, recordings of Brahms’s First Piano Concerto and Variations on a theme by Haydn featuring the pianist Cédric Tiberghien were released by Harmonia Mundi. The already-mentioned recording of Janáček’s Excursions of Mr. Brouček and Josef Bohuslav Foerster’s Violin Concertos released by Supraphon in cooperation with BBC Radio 3 followed in 2008. In 2009, the CD entitled Joseph Marx: Orchestral Songs and Choral Works and a live recording of a Prague Spring performance of Suk’s Asrael and Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem followed. In 2010, there were the recordings of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos performed by Paul Lewis and a recording of Brian Elias’ Doubles, which Bělohlávek conducted in world premiere on 16 May 2009, and another release wase a set of complete symphonies by Bohuslav Martinů on the Onyx label, and Suk’s Ripening and Symphony No. 1 in E major for the Chandos label, recorded with the BBC Symphony and New London Chamber Choir. In 2011, Harmonia Mundi published a recording of The Bartered Bride and of Martinů’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra featuring Maxim Rysanov. In 2012, Chandos released Suk’s Praga and A Summer’s Tale that won the prestigious Gramophone Award in the orchestral category; Harmonia Mundi published a CD of cello works by Edward Elgar (Cello Concerto), Antonín Dvořák (Silent Woods) and Tchaikovsky (Rococo Variations) performed by Jean-Guihen Queyras; the Naïve label released a CD with piano concertos by Antonín Dvořák and Robert Schumann with Francesco Piemontesi on the piano; and Onyx published a live recording of a concert performance of Smetana’s Dalibor.

The BBC’s own label BBC Music published live recordings of the orchestra’s concerts. In 1999 there was a CD with Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 and Bohuslav Martinů’s Frescoes of Piero della Francesca. Both compositions were performed at the BBC Proms that year. A Proms performance of Dvořák’s Symphonic Variations from 27 August 2000 was published on a CD in 2001, together with Edward Elgar’s Falstaff performed by BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martin Brabbins on 3 August 2000. In 2003, a recording of live subscription concerts of May 1999 featuring Dvořák’s Sixth Symphony and Vítězslav Novák’s Eternal Longing – Symphonic Poem was released.

Bělohlávek felt wonderful in London, as he said, both professionally and personally. The beautiful relationship between the conductor and the players was described by the then general director of the orchestra Paul Hughes and the players as well:

Bělohlávek celebrated his birthday in London twice, inviting all players of the orchestra to the party. Many parties were also thrown while on tours, two of which were memorable theme parties, so much loved by the British – one in wigs and one in masks.

The fact that Bělohlávek was really liked by the orchestra members can be testified by the specially created The Jiří Contra Dictionary, assembled diligently throughout the years and dedicated to the conductor as a farewell present. The dictionary confronts many of Bělohlávek’s original “English” expressions with their actual English meanings.

At rehearsals, Bělohlávek would sometimes surprise the players or make them laugh by some linguistic inaccuracies, often resulting from his not-quite-British pronunciation. For instance, some orchestra members misunderstood him when he wanted to try a new “version” and though he wanted to try a new “virgin” instead. Another example was when wanting to indicate a place in the score which was subdivided into parts marked by letters and he used the expression “double D” which refers also to a bra size. This created a smile on the faces of the players, especially the ladies. Bělohlávek’s working method of using figurative language as opposed to only technical instructions contributed to the incidence of these humorous moments.

Concert halls and opera houses around the world

From the start of the new millennium, Bělohlávek’s international opera career was developing successfully. Together with Jiří Kout, he became one of the few Czech opera conductors acclaimed and sought-after abroad.

In the last two decades of his life, Bělohlávek wanted to include both symphonic music and opera in his career. He considered all suggested projects carefully and chose only those that fitted in his plans, intentions, and professional dreams. From 2005, Wray Armstrong, his new agent, was helping him deal with orchestras and opera houses abroad. Bělohlávek had met him back in 1981 while guest conducting with the Toronto Symphony, where Armstrong worked as the orchestra’s artistic administrator at the time.

In the summer of 2000, Bělohlávek made an impressive debut at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival with his production of Janáček’s Jenůfa. He returned to Glyndebourne in 2003 to perform Wagner’s monumental opera Tristan und Isolde, directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff. It was a Wagnerian premiere, both for Bělohlávek and for the festival.

At the end of 2003 and at the beginning of 2004, there were two productions of Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová, one at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and one at the Finnish National Opera House where Bělohlávek invited Tomáš Hanus to be his assistant conductor. The role of Káťa was sung by the Finnish soprano Karita Matilla. In November 2004, Bělohávek returned to Geneva to perform Janáček’s From the House of the Dead. And then in December, Bělohlávek had his debut in what is probably the most famous opera house of all – at the Metropolitan Opera in New York – with a production of Káťa Kabanová. The role of Varvara was sung by Magdalena Kožená and of Káťa by Karita Mattila. Jonathan Miller was the opera director and Robert Israel was the set and costume designer. The premiere took place on 17 December and was followed by four more performances.

In September 2005, Bělohlávek conducted Dvořák’s Rusalka at the Opéra Bastille in Paris with Olga Guryakova as Rusalka and Stuart Skelton as the Prince. The production was directed by Robert Carsen. At the same opera house, Bělohlávek conducted Martinů’s opera Juliette ou la Clé des songes several months later. This opera production as well as other concerts were part of the festival of Czech music organized by the Czech Centre Paris together with French partners at the beginning of 2006. For this production, the original French text written by Martinů, reconstructed by the French musicologist Harry Halbreich, was used for the first time. The premiere took place on Friday 3 February 2006 and it featured Elena Semenova (Juliette) and John Graham Hall (Michel) in the lead roles. On Wednesday 8 February, Bělohlávek conducted Smetana’s Má vlast in a special concert at the Paris Opera.

In December 2006, Bělohlávek made his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 performed by the Korean-American soloist Sarah Chang, Janáček’s Taras Bulba and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 6 were on the programme.

In 2007, Bělohlávek returned to the Metropolitan Opera for a production of Jenůfa, which he conducted six times during January and February. The production directed by Olivier Tambosi featured again Karita Mattila in the lead role. The soprano Anja Silja was Kostelnička, Kim Begley was Laca and Jorma Silvasti was Števa. In May of the same year, Bělohlávek conducted Jenůfa also at the Washington National Opera.

In April, Bělohlávek conducted the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The programme was Czech, with one exception: Dvořák’s overture Othello, Janáček’s violin concerto The Wandering Soul, Smetana’s symphonic poems Richard III and Vltava and Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.3 in G major. The solo part was performed by the German violinist Christian Tetzlaff.

In the summer of 2007, a renewed production of Tristan und Isolde, with almost the same cast including Bělohlávek and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, was presented at the Glyndebourne Festival. The production was filmed live by a team of the Opus Arte label and released the following year on a DVD.

In the autumn, there was yet another phenomenal performance of Má vlast, this time with the Berliner Philharmoniker. More than six thousand people heard it at sold-out concerts on 18-20 October 2007. The orchestra played the complete score after a long time of seventeen years.

Bělohlávek commented the performance: “…we played without intermission, even without doubling the winds. And when the wind section had the tricky pastorale in Blaník, they performed it in such a way even after sixty minutes of intensive playing that I could have absolutely no objection. As if taking out a jewel from a treasure chest… It is a very demanding task for any player who has not been breast-fed with Má vlast, we used every minute of all four rehearsals and the dress-rehearsal. The response of the musicians was perhaps even more spontaneous than in the hall - they wanted to absorb everything connected with the tradition of performing this work in our country.“ [ 42 ]

Bělohlávek performed Má vlast again with the Berliner Philharmoniker the following year at a festival in Aix-en-Provence.

In 2008, Bělohlávek performed Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House in London. He also performed it less than a year later, in January and February 2009, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The production was directed by Robert Carsen, Onegin was sung by Thomas Hampson and Tatiana by Karita Mattila. In October 2008, Bělohlávek conducted The Bartered Bride staged by the Belgian director Gilbert Deflo at the historic Opéra national de Paris. This opera, the most classic of all Czech operas, returned to Paris after long eighty years. The international cast consisted of Aleš Bricein (Jeník) from the Czech Republic, Christiane Oelze (Mařenka) and Franz Hawlata (Kecal) from Germany, and a young bass from Slovakia Štefan Kocán (Mícha).

December 2008 brought Bělohlávek to Madrid with a production of Káťa Kabanová. For ten nights, operagoers at Teatro Real could witness the tragic fate of a young woman who is driven to suicide by hypocritical society. Káťa was performed exquisitely by Karita Mattila, the role of Kabanicha was sung by the Israeli mezzosoprano Dalia Schaechter, Boris by the Slovak tenor Miroslav Dvorský and Dikoj by Oleg Bryjak. A live recording of the performance was released in 2010 on DVD and Blue-ray on the FRA Musica label.

For Bělohlávek, 2009 was the year of Rusalkas, bringing two of them. In March, there was a production at the MET in New York with Renée Fleming as Rusalka and the Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antoņenko as the Prince. In the summer, Bělohlávek returned to Glyndebourne to stage Rusalka, directed by the English director Melly Still, featuring Ana María Martínez as Rusalka, Brandon Jovanovich as the Prince and Larissa Diadkova as Ježibaba. A live recording was released in 2010 on a CD.

In 2010, Bělohlávek conducted Janáček’s The Makropulos Affair for the first time. The opera was staged at the Opera San Francisco where it had had its American premiere in 1966. It was co-produced with the Finnish National Opera and starred Karita Mattila as Emilia Marty and Miro Dvorský as Albert Gregor. The director was Olivier Tambosi. This was another instance of collaboration between Bělohlávek and Karita Mattila and it was she who requested this conductor for the production. Bělohlávek and Mattila followed up on their Janáček collaboration two years later (2012) when The Makropulos Affair was staged at the MET, directed by Elijah Moshinsky.

In 2012 Bělohlávek took part in a production of Juliette at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. The opera set was taken over from the Paris production of 2002 (Opéra Garnier) and 2006 (Opéra Bastille). It starred Nataliya Kovalova as Juliette and Steve Davislim as Michel.

At home in the Czech Republic

Despite numerous professional commitments abroad, Bělohlávek’s collaboration with Czech orchestras and opera houses continued. He performed with the PKF – Prague Philharmonia regularly every season, at subscription concerts, on tours and at various Czech festivals.

Conducted by their former chief conductor, the PKF – Prague Philharmonia gave a concert dedicated to the music of W.A. Mozart with F. Kemp as the soloist on 24 September 2006 in Turin. On 4 October 2006, they performed together again at Besední dům in Brno within the Moravian Autumn Festival and then in March 2009, they opened a series of events celebrating the ninetieth anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia in a concert in the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle. In March 2009, they performed Ludwig van Beethoven’s magnificent Missa solemnis with soloists Simona Šaturová - soprano, Eva Garajová - alto, Tomáš Černý - tenor, Gustav Beláček - bass and the Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno. This was followed in May by a concert within the Prague Spring Festival featuring the mezzosoprano Dagmar Pecková offering works by Bohuslav Martinů, Joseph Canteloube and Petr Eben.

On 28 April 2010, Bělohlávek conducted the PKF in a nearly perfect performance of Schubert’s Symphony No.2 and Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the soloist J. Q. Queyras. In December of the same year, Bělohlávek was honoured to take up an important task – to conduct a special concert organized by the PKF in the Smetana Hall of the Municipal House in Prague honouring the eightieth birthday of the pianist Ivan Moravec. Beethoven’s Coriolan overture and Symphony No.3 Eroica and a Martinů’s Concerto for Two Pianos were on the programme. Ivan Moravec himself was supposed to perform, however due to an unexpected hand operation he could not. He was, however, well substituted by two of his students – Václav Mácha and Slávka Pěchočová. By this concert (and not only), Bělohlávek paid musical homage to his colleague and friend.

In the first decade of the new millennium, Bělohlávek twice performed at the National Theatre in Prague. Together with the director Jiří Nekvasil, they staged Martinů’s opera The Greek Passion in 2006. On 13 April, a day before the premiere, Bělohlávek received a medal from the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation in the presidential salon of the National Theatre, acknowledging his life-long effort to perform the work of this composer. In October 2009, he premiered Martinů’s opera The Miracles of Mary, directed by Jiří Heřman.

At the same time, the chapter entitled Jiří Bělohlávek and the Czech Philharmonic continued to develop. The conductor appeared with the first Czech orchestra at least once a year as a guest conductor and made a number of notable recordings. In 2003, he accepted Supraphon’s offer to record all six of Martinů’s symphonies. In 2003, Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No.4 appeared in shops, and after a break of six years, two more symphonies, the fifth and the sixth ones were recorded and released in 2009. The high quality of the recording is shown by the fact that the first CD was nominated for the Grammy Award in 2004.

In 2008, Bělohlávek and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra took part in an important event. On 19 September, they performed Mahler’s Seventh Symphony, a hundred years to date after its premiere, conducted in 1908 in Prague by the composer himself.

In March 2010, Bělohlávek conducted two premieres at subscription concerts of the Czech Philharmonic: The Czech premiere of Jaroslav Smolka’s suite from Janáček’s opera Káťa Kabanová which he’d performed in world premiere in February in London with the BBC Symphony Orchestra; and the world premiere of Jiří Gemrot’s Piano Concerto No.1. The programme was complemented by Martinů’s Symphony No.1.

A long-awaited opening concert of the Prague Spring Festival took place in May 2011, performed by the orchestra consisting of students of the Prague Conservatoire. This grandiose project marked the bicentennial of the Conservatoire.

Bělohlávek did not conduct only concerts where people come to be entertained or spiritually uplifted, he conducted the Czech Philharmonic also in moments of national mourning - in December 2011 when the whole country bade farewell to President Václav Havel. On Wednesday 21 December, the Czech Philharmonic played at a ceremony in the Vladislav Hall of Prague Castle and on Friday 23 December in St. Vitus Cathedral. They performed Dvořák’s Requiem, excerpts from Händel’s oratorio Messiah, one of Dvořák’s Biblical songs Při řekách babylonských (By the shore of the river Babylon) and the Saint Wenceslas Chorale. These events were a form of Bělohlávek’s personal musical farewell to a person he greatly respected. In an interview from the time, Bělohlávek responded to a question about Václav Havel: “He was an exceptional person, exemplary by his whole life, his outstanding courage, both human and political, and by his moral stance manifested on every occasion. In my opinion, he should be an inspiration not only to artists, but also to each and every citizen of our country.” [ 46 ]