Smetana Ma Vlast

[StephenO]

The Concertgebouw/Dorati recording still reigns supreme for me although Colin Davis's version on LSO Live impresses me more each time I listen to it. And, yes, it does have to be the complete cycle!

[BBMmk2]

I havced the Kubelik and Mackerras recordin gs. Both do it for me!!

[PJPJ]

Rob Cowan was raving about a Talich live performance during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939 - anyone heard it ?

Is it not 1941? I have heard three Talich recordings and enjoyed the last one best largely due to what I felt to be far finer orchestral playing. Suffolkcoastal mentioned the superb Kubelik/Boston on DG - I got an inexpensive DG/Japan reissue of this which sounds better than the earlier European tizzy CD release.

I noticed Berglund's Dresden recording is up for re-release in the new year - I'm tempted.....but I'll wait to hear what mahlerei thinks of the new BIS recording.

[DoctorT]

I think the Wit recording is very good. One of my memorable musical experiences was listening to it on my MP3 player within sight of the Moldau.

[amateur51]

I am in complete agreement with the enthusiasm for this piece.

I am surprised not to have seen the name of Ferenc Fricsay high on the list of favourites. There is a video of his conducting The Moldau 'live' and also a wonderful film of his rehearsing the orchestra for this performance I think. The firm but very polite way in which he gets his imaginative ideas across to the players is light years from some of the bullying style of many of the 'star' conductors of earlier days. A real treat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fsYPz4aWnc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oE6V1pwQPg&feature=related

Did he ever record any Wagner? I suspect that it would have been wonderful if he did.

He died quite young and we have indeed missed much as a result. We must be grateful for what remains.

[Petrushka]

Agree completely with Chris in Message 3.

I have only rwo complete recordings on CD: Kubelik and the CPO and Sargent and the RPO. There is a very fine Vltava from Haitink in the box issued to celebrate his 80th birthday and really whets the appetite for a complete cycle that he has, alas, not done.

[PJPJ]

Is it not 1941? I have heard three Talich recordings and enjoyed the last one best largely due to what I felt to be far finer orchestral playing.

Apologies - I'd forgotten about the 1939 live performance issued by the CPO themselves, and Rob Cowan's review of it! I've yet to hear that one:

http://cdmusic.cz/inshop/scripts/Detail.asp?kat=CPO0022032

sadly, OOP already...

[LeMartinPecheur]

I have only Ancerl 1941 and 1954. Time I binned them and got a decent modern recording!

My copy of the '41 came in a weird 4-CD compilation of pretty random Smetana recordings on the Quodromania label (part of Membran GmbH) that I picked up in our local discount emporium Trago Mills. The other works - recorded 1969 to 2001 - include the Triumphal March in E, Hakon Jarl, a selection of Polkas, Bohemian Dances and other piano works (6 different pianists, all unknown to me), the 1st quartet ("Talich Quartett (sic), recorded 1998" it says) and the Piano Trio. Not bad for under a fiver IIRC. Anyone else come across this oddity??

[Roehre]

I have only Ancerl 1941 and 1954. Time I binned them and got a decent modern recording!

My copy of the '41 came in a weird 4-CD compilation of pretty random Smetana recordings on the Quodromania label (part of Membran GmbH) that I picked up in our local discount emporium Trago Mills. The other works - recorded 1975 to 2001 - are the Triumphal March in E, Hakon Jarl, a selection of Polkas and Bohemian Dances for piano (3 different pianists, all unknown to me), the 1st quartet ("Talich Quartett (sic), recorded 1998" it says) and the Piano Trio. Not bad for under a fiver IIRC. Anyone else come across this oddity??

Yes. Quadromania had got in the same series a release of Mahler: 9 with Walter in his Vienna 1938 recording, 4 with Mengelberg COA 1939, 5 Walter NYP 1947 and 1 Macropoulos NYP1947. 5 Euros for 4 CDs. Not the best of transfers to CD I'm afraid, but definitely enjoyable.

[Bryn]

Yes. Quadromania had got in the same series a release of Mahler: 9 with Walter in his Vienna 1938 recording, 4 with Mengelberg COA 1939, 5 Walter NYP 1947 and 1 Macropoulos NYP1947. 5 Euros for 4 CDs. Not the best of transfers to CD I'm afraid, but definitely enjoyable.

Blimey, Roehre, Macropoulos must have been even older than when Janacek offered her to us. You been at the Christmas spirits a bit early?

[bluestateprommer]

I have but one CD of Má vlast, the Supraphon issue with Rafael Kubelík leading the Czech Philharmonic live at the Prague Spring Festival. Have heard Norrington's "alternative" take of it on his EMI recording in a past life. Also, taking salymap's initial comment further and re-stating a past comment of mine on the now-demised R3 MB, a complete Má vlast is a JB/BBC SO Prom just waiting to happen.

[Roehre]

Blimey, Roehre, Macropoulos must have been even older than when Janacek offered her to us. You been at the Christmas spirits a bit early?

Didn't you know that Janacek's opera originally was called The Mitropoulos Case???
Btw, I came across that Quadromania-set (a Japanese production IIRC) some two or three years ago already.

[Chris Newman]

Didn't you know that Janacek's opera originally was called The Mitropoulos Case???
Btw, I came across that Quadromania-set (a Japanese production IIRC) some two or three years ago already.

Of course, Leos Janacek hoped for a New York premiere: working title The Metropoulos Case.

[reinerfan]

I first got to know Ma Vlast from the Ancerl version when Supraphon LP's started arriving in th UK at 17/6 each, and have loved the work ever since. I do agree that the work is best heard in it's entirety, although Vltava and From Bohemia's Woods and Fields do stand alone quite well. I have the following versions:-
Ancerl-Czech P.O. (CD & DVD)
Belohlávec-Czech P.O. (CD)
Kubelik-Czech P.O. (CD)
Kubelik-Bavarian R.S.O. (CD & DVD)
Kuchar-Janacek P.O. (CD)
Macal-Baden-Baden S.O. (CD)
Neumann-Leipzig Gewandhaus (CD)
Smetacek-Czech P.O. (CD)
Talich-Czech P.O.-1941 & 1954 versions (CD's)
Wit-Polish National Radio S.O. (CD)
My favourites are the Kubelik, Talich and Ancerl versions, all with the Czech P.O. and, apart from the Wit, I have never managed to find, for me, a satisfactory version without some Czech input.
The Quadromania set comes from the Membran 10 CD set devoted to Smetana which is well worth acquiring, as it contains, as well as the 1941 Talich Ma Vlast, the first recording of The Bartered Bride and the 1950 recording of Dalibor. These historical recordings take up half of the box, whilst the other half contains modern recordings taken from Czech Radio. This is indeed a fabulous bargain if you can find it, as I did, at about £8!

[Bryn]

Reinerfan, I strongly recommend that you try the LCP/Norrington recording (Studio 1, Abbey Road) which followed their performance which opened the 1996 Prague Spring Festival. Much work was done in a attempt to remove the many editorial 'improvements' to the score by hands other than the composer's. As Norrington says, an Urtext performing edition was/is very much needed, siince many of the intervening editorial decision have made quite major changes to the instrumentation, etc. He asserts that Smetena was quite specific about what he wanted, but that is not what we all too often get today.