Jiří Bělohlávek was the leading Czech conductor of his generation. As Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, he was heir to a great tradition, the orchestra’s authority in Czech repertoire having been handed down and consolidated by Václav Talich, Rafael Kubelík, Karel Ančerl and Václav Neumann. Bělohlávek’s name stands proudly among this company, but his substantial catalogue of recordings also reveals a distinctive voice. The folk melodies at the heart of the Czech tradition sing with rare clarity under his baton. He was a pupil of Sergiu Celibidache, a conductor who valued precisely defined texture and focus of line. Those qualities, of crisp orchestral colour and alert, dynamic voicing, are the hallmarks of Bělohlávek’s approach. And, as fortune would have it, the greatest years of his career coincided with the advent of modern digital sound, capturing both the details and the focused intensity that distinguished his first-rate interpretations.

Bělohlávek first established himself in Czechoslovakia as an orchestra builder. When he took over the Prague Symphony Orchestra in 1977, it was generally regarded as a respectable studio band, with little status outside the capital. His 12 years there saw the orchestra grow in scope and ambition, touring widely and beginning to compete seriously with the Czech Philharmonic as musical ambassador. Bělohlávek began recording in earnest during this period, with a string of LPs on the state-owned Supraphon and Panton labels, spanning significant French, German and Russian repertoire, as well as the Czech composers who would dominate his later catalogue, notably Dvořák and Martinů.

The fall of Communism and the break-up of Czechoslovakia were difficult times for music in Prague, and Bělohlávek’s brief first tenure with the Czech Philharmonic was an early casualty. But in 1993, he saw a chance to put his orchestra-building skills to good use, taking advantage of funding from the Czech Ministry of Defence to found the Prague Philharmonia. The ensemble began as a training orchestra for young Czech musicians, and although the government funds soon ran dry, Bělohlávek was again able to shape an orchestra of international standing.

The majority of Bělohlávek’s notable recordings are, however, with the two orchestras most closely associated with his name. After serving as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2000, he stepped up to the role of Chief Conductor in 2006. Then in 2012 he was reappointed to the Czech Philharmonic, the orchestra having resolved its financial and artistic problems to his satisfaction.

Naturally, Czech music dominated Bělohlávek’s time with the BBC SO. How did he achieve a Czech sound with British players? When Mike Ashman asked him in a Gramophone interview (4/08), he replied, ‘Ah, that’s the general question that we’re working on constantly. You need a profoundly singing and full-blooded string sound – that’s the main work. The brilliant wind sound is not such a big deal – British orchestras have that already.’ Clearly, the flexibility of the musicians played a part, that shape-shifting quality that distinguishes the greatest radio orchestras.

Direct collaboration with Czech singers helped to foster that authentic sound. In 2007, Bělohlávek and the BBC SO gave a concert performance of Janáček’s The Excursions of Mr Brouček with an all-Czech cast singing in their native language. A recording of the concert was released on DG (4/08), winning the conductor the first of three Gramophone Awards. The event also inspired further Czech operas in concert with the orchestra: Martinů’s Julietta (in 2009, sung in French, with Magdalena Kožená – no commercial release, sadly); and Smetana’s The Bartered Bride (in 2011; Harmonia Mundi, 12/12) and Dalibor (in 2015; Onyx, 1/16), both sung in Czech, the recording of the latter a clear library choice for that work.

Opera had been an important strand of Bělohlávek’s career as far back as 1998, when he was appointed head of opera at the Prague National Theatre. As his international reputation rose, he came to be regarded as the conductor of choice for Czech repertoire, particularly at the Metropolitan Opera and Glyndebourne. His judicious reduction of the scoring for Tristan und Isolde allowed Glyndebourne finally, in 2003, to realise a long-held ambition to stage Wagner. In his review of the DVD release of a performance from the 2007 run (8/08), Ashman praises Bělohlávek’s conducting as ‘balanced with a Goodall-like attention to the filigree detail of Wagner’s new-wave scoring’.

A key to Bělohlávek’s success in opera was his sensitive but characterful approach to accompaniment, a task well served by his attention to orchestral detail and keen ear for balance. Reviewing Paul Lewis’s Beethoven piano concerto set on Harmonia Mundi, Bryce Morrison (9/10) approvingly notes, ‘Lewis’s partnership with Jiří Bělohlávek is an ideal match of musical feeling, vigour and refinement.’ The symphonic scope of Dvořák’s concertos also show Bělohlávek at his best. Gramophone critics have praised the ‘authentic Czech flavour’ he affords Isabelle Faust’s recording of the Violin Concerto (11/04), his ‘fresh, incisive and warmly sympathetic’ accompaniment of Jean-Guihen Queyras in the Cello Concerto (11/05), and the ‘feisty, committed’ performance of the Piano Concerto with Francesco Piemontesi (8/13).

Dvořák was a cornerstone of Bělohlávek’s repertoire, but, as he lamented in Gramophone (6/17), ‘It’s not easy to convince promoters that Dvořák is not only the New World Symphony.’ Indeed, his recordings demonstrate a keen interest in the composer’s lesser-known works. Try The Stubborn Lovers, a sparkling one-act comedy presented (in Czech) with a light touch but with trademark rhythmic focus by Bělohlávek and the Prague Philharmonia (6/04). A symphony cycle with the Czech Philharmonic for Decca can’t match István Kertész and the LSO for sheer pungency or emotive weight, but the bright and breezy dance rhythms, and the characterful woodwind, make for seductive listening. He is more competitive in the major choral works, especially the Stabat mater, with three accounts spanning his career.

As an advocate for the unknown and the little performed, Bělohlávek made his greatest impact with the music of Martinů. This was music ideally suited to his approach, full of colour and detail, all presented with crystal clarity and vibrant energy by Bělohlávek and each of his orchestras. The composer’s centenary in 1990 was widely celebrated in Prague, including many performances and recordings by Bělohlávek with the Prague SO and the Czech Philharmonic. The same year, he appeared with the Prague SO at the Edinburgh Festival, conducting a concert performance in English of Martinů’s final opera, The Greek Passion, and the Second Piano Concerto with Rudolf Firkušný, a close friend of the composer. In his first season as Chief Conductor of the BBC SO, he presented all six symphonies, the subsequent recordings becoming the benchmark. So too his concerto recordings with cellist Raphael Wallfisch (Czech Philharmonic; 4/92), violinist Isabelle Faust (Prague Philharmonia; 8/08) and viola player Maxim Rysanov (BBC SO; 6/15).

Even so, in 2017 Bělohlávek pointed out that ‘Martinů is still to be discovered’, but this was something he would never witness, as he died that same year. He continued to conduct right up until the end, his long battle with cancer playing out in the public eye, both in Prague and London. It later emerged that he had made several recordings with the Czech Philharmonic for Decca that had yet to be released. These proved a fitting memorial as they gradually appeared over the following years, exemplary accounts of some of the greatest milestones of the Czech repertoire, including Smetana’s Má vlast, Suk’s Asrael and Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass.