Eva Krestová remembered Semyon Bychkov’s first rehearsal as chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, leading Shostakovich’s “Leningrad” symphony.
“I was shaking,” the viola leader recalled of that day in Prague’s Rudolfinum. “He smiled at me and from this moment, I knew that I can do it. He told me very nice words after — he told me that this is exactly what my viola section needs.”
