Libor Pešek

Liverpool has a habit of taking its conductors to its heart. For much of the 1990s, the genial but enigmatic Czech conductor Libor Pešek became a major local personality for his work with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. As Music Director, 1987–98, he restored the RLPO to world-class standard, leading some to consider it “the finest Czech orchestra this side of Prague”. Born in 1933, Pešek studied with Karel Ančerl and Vacláv Neumann, and held positions with the Prague National Opera, Slovak Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, and Czech National Symphony orchestras. A specialist in Czech music, he delved beyond Smetana, Dvořák, and Janáček to champion music by composers such as Josef Suk, Vítězslav Novák, and Pavel Vejvanovský in concert and on recordings. With the RLPO he opened the Prague Spring Festival in 1993—the first non-Czech orchestra to do so—and championed Suk's Asrael Symphony, giving its BBC Proms premiere in 1991, subsequently touring it to the US in 1992 before recording it in 1994. He died aged 89 in 2022.