Around the Music Festival

Czech conductor Libor Pesek died in Prague on August 23 at the age of 89. One of the Czech Republic’s leading conductors, he was active internationally and served as music director of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in the UK from 1987 to 1998, where he held the title of Conductor Laureate.

He was born in Prague in 1933. He studied piano, cello, and trombone at the Prague Conservatory, where he also studied conducting with Václav Smetáček and Karel Ancerl He also conducted orchestras and opera houses in the Czech Republic.

In 1980 he became principal conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, from which he retired in 1981, and from 1982 until 1990 he served as permanent conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

He also served as principal conductor of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1993 by Zdeněk Košler and others, from 2007 to 2019.

He is highly regarded for his interpretation of Czech He has completed a complete cycle of Dvorak’s symphonies with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and has contributed to the reappraisal of composers such as Josef Suk and Vítězslav Novák.

He has also actively taken up rarely performed works and has recorded the symphonies of Franz Schmidt and the piano concertos of Scriabin.

He was awarded the Order of the British Empire, Second Class （Knight Commander-KBE） in 1996 and the First Grade of Czech Medal of Merit in 1997.

Photo：Czech National Symphony Orchestra