Jiri Belohlávek
Czech-born former chief conductor of the BBC SO who entered into the spirit of the Proms
JIRÍ BELOHLÁVEK, the Czech-born conductor, who has died aged 71, was chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2012, and in his second season became one of the few non-native English speakers to grasp the strange amalgam of flag-waving, sea-shanties and mystical vision of Albion that is the Last Night of the Proms.
“I love it, it’s the most wonderful party for everyone,” he told Ivan Hewitt of The Daily Telegraph while preparing for his second “Last Night” in 2010. “It’s part of British heritage and it should be preserved and flourish, and thank goodness most people feel the same.”
Crowned with a cloud of white hair, and speaking with a thick Czech accent, Belohlávek entered thoroughly into the spirit of the occasion, especially bringing a spine-tingling feel to Benjamin Britten’s magical arrangement of the National Anthem.
Belohlávek was also a great ambassador for Czech music, bringing to British music lovers not only the mainstream repertoire of Dvorák, Smetana and Janácek, but also more neglected composers, particularly from Bohemia. One such was Bohuslav Martinu, whose six symphonies were the subject of a series he gave with the BBC SO in 2009-10.
He was equally at home in the opera pit, again excelling in Czech music. His powerful conducting of Janácek’s heartbreaking opera Jenufa at Glyndebourne in 2000, starring Anja Silja as the Kostelnicka who kills a baby to protect his unmarried mother’s reputation, stands out in the memory; he returned there to conduct Tristan und Isolde despite being a Wagner ingénue. The Met in New York enjoyed his performances of Janácek’s other tragic opera, Kát’a Kabanová, in 2004 with Karita Mattila, and in 2008 he conducted Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin
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Although Belohlávek’s career had been at times disrupted by the Communist regime, like many Czechs his age he had mixed feelings about its demise. “If you played in an orchestra you had a job for life, and that was not good, people became very lazy,” he said. “… But sometimes I wish we could be a little more relaxed. Sometimes slow cooking is best.”
Jirí Belohlávek was born in Prague on February 24 1946, the son of a judge, also called Jirí, and his wife Anna, who introduced him to classical music. By the age of four he was singing in the Kühn children’s choir and taking piano lessons; soon he was playing cello, which he studied at the Prague Conservatory where he also showed an interest in conducting. He recalled a performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony conducted by Rafael Kubelik at the Edinburgh Festival when he was 19, describing it as the most memorable musical experience of his life as an audience member.
He was 22 when he took part in a masterclass in Prague given by Sergiu Celibidache, the Romanian conductor, who invited Belohlávek to become his assistant. Conscription intervened, which he spent conducting the Czech Army Orchestra. “This was the best way to do military service,” he said.
He entered Herbert von Karajan’s conducting competition in 1969 but, according to Karajan’s biography, fell by the wayside. The following year he won a young conductors’ competition in Czechoslovakia and in 1971 returned to Karajan’s competition in West Berlin, this time reaching the finals. Now he found political obstacles in his path, with invitations to conduct in Berlin and Tel Aviv blocked by the authorities. Instead he was appointed to the Brno Symphony Orchestra, later working with orchestras in Prague.
After the Velvet Revolution of 1989 he was elected music director of the Czech Philharmonic by its players, but was ousted a year later by an orchestra that erroneously believed there would be greater prestige in having a foreign conductor. Undaunted, Belohlávek, who continued to live in the Czech capital, set up the Prague Philharmonia, luring many of the country’s best players to its ranks. In later years he taught at the Prague Academy of Music and was chairman of the Prague Spring Festival.
He made his Proms debut in 1993 with the BBC Philharmonic in Mahler’s Symphony No 1. After a spell guest conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra he became their chief conductor in 2006.
In his first season he directed the BBC SO in four Proms, including the First Night and an 80th birthday tribute for the Queen. In 2009 he gamely “played” the vacuum cleaner in a Last Night performance of Malcolm Arnold’s Grand, Grand Overture conducted by David Robertson (Sir David Attenborough was on the floor polisher).
The Czech Philharmonic made their peace in 2012 and as chief conductor he took them on their first American tour in 2014, with concerts in New York, and Washington to mark the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. In January he renewed his contract for a further six years, programming works that pushed them to the limits, including Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony.
Six weeks ago, and now seriously ill, he gave his final concert with the BBC SO at the Barbican, appropriately conducting them in a rare performance of the soul-searching Requiem by his compatriot, Dvorák.
Belohlávek, who was appointed honorary CBE in 2012, is survived by his wife Anna (née Fejerova), whom he married in 1971, and by their two daughters.
Jirí Belohlávek, born February 24 1946, died June 1 2017