Page 692 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

Although travel became harder after the Prague Spring, two colleagues had an engagement with

the Dutch orchestra in Leeuwarden and arranged for him to join them. The following year he

was appointed the orchestra’s conductor. Although he had to pay “bloody 80 per cent” of his

overseas income to the Czech authorities, he could never bring himself to leave the country
permanently.

While in the Netherlands he read books on meditation and became interested in Buddhism. Later
he gave up smoking and turned vegetarian. He enjoyed star-gazing and messing about with cars.

(He kept a series of bull-mastiff dogs and several revolvers. “I like to shoot, but only at the

shooting range. I wouldn’t shoot at an animal,” he said.)

When the Queen, who was patron of the RLPO, visited the Czech Republic in March 1996 she

bestowed on him an honorary knighthood. He continued to guest-conduct the orchestra, where

he was conductor laureate, the last occasion being his 80th birthday concert in June 2013.

Pesek was also much honoured in his homeland. Perhaps his most memorable conducting in

Prague was in St Vitus cathedral in December 1989, soon after the revolution against the

communist regime, marking the inauguration of his old friend Vaclav Havel as president. It was
a hugely emotional celebration of the Czech national spirit, which music had helped to sustain

during the dictatorships that had dominated Pesek’s lifespan.

Libor Pesek, conductor, was born on June 22, 1933. He died on October 23, 2022, aged 89