PRAGUE (AP) — Czech classical music conductor Libor Pešek, best known for conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for ten years, has died. he was 89 years old.
Pesek died on Sunday, said Jan Hasenor, director of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, where Pesek was principal conductor until 2019.
Pesek has collaborated with several national and international orchestras. He was a great supporter of the music of Czech composers, especially Josef Suk, a pupil of Josef Dvořák and his son-in-law. His recordings and concerts with the Royal His Liverpool His Philharmonic Orchestra have contributed to making Suk’s music known worldwide.
“It was mainly because it was the right time to present unknown works in the UK, even Czech ones, and it was still the right time to make some recordings,” he once said of Czech said in a public radio interview.
Peszek was Principal Conductor at Liverpool from 1987 to 1997 and later became Conductor Laureate. Under his direction, the Northern English His Orchestra was called “the best Czech orchestra this side of Prague”.
In 1996, Queen Elizabeth II was appointed Knight Commander of the British Empire during her visit to Prague.
Born in Prague on June 22, 1933, Pešek began an international conducting career spanning more than 50 years, studying conducting, piano, cello and trombone at the Prague Academy of Music and Arts.
He led several orchestras in Holland in the 1970s, led the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, and was conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1980s. Afterwards, he served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra.
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