The conductor Libor Pešek, a great promoter of Czech music, has died
At the age of 89 on Sunday 23.10. conductor Libor Pešek died. Czech Television’s information was confirmed by the director of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Jan Hasenöhrl. A supporter and promoter of Suk’s work, Pešek gained world renown especially as chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
He worked as artistic director and chief conductor of the Liverpool Royal Orchestra Libor Pešek between 1987 and 1997. On the occasion of the state visit of the British Queen Elizabeth II. in the Czech Republic in 1996 received Order of the British Empire. A year later, he received it from the hands of President Václav Havel Medal for Merit of the 1st degree. In 2013, he took over from representatives of Supraphon diamond plate for 635,000 carriers sold. Four years ago he won the classical music prize Classic Prague Awards in the lifetime contribution category.
In his youth, Pešek studied piano, trombone and cello. “It is good for a conductor to have experience with a stringed instrument, and a piano is necessary so that in his youth he can play scores that he only reads later,” he said earlier in an interview with ČTK. According to Pešek, a conductor must also be a good psychologist with great empathy.
A car lover, jazz fan and also an avid stargazer, Pešek performed with his own jazz big band as a high school student. He later graduated in conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. In the 1950s and 1960s, he founded the ensembles Komorní harmonie and the Sebastian Orchestra, and from the following decade he performed with various domestic and foreign orchestras.
In the early 1980s, Pešek briefly led the Slovak Philharmonic, from 1981 to 1990 he was a regular guest of the Czech Philharmonic. He then became the chief guest conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Capital City of Prague, FOK, and before the end of his active career he held the post of chief conductor of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra.
Let’s recall what he said Libor Pešek in 2016 during his radio visit Classic Prague as part of the program Music in the Millennium.
Source: ČTK
Photo: Profimedia