For Gramophone readers of a certain age, the budget-price Classics for Pleasure recording, with the LPO, of Dvořák’s New World Symphony conducted by Zdeněk Mácal, who has died at the age of 87, was a regular recommendation of our reviewers following its release in 1982. Edward Greenfield concluded his review: ‘Not many versions of a much-recorded symphony are more refreshingly recommendable than this at any price. For even a very well-stocked collector, it is well worth having as an extra version at CfP's bargain price, not just for the performance but for the outstanding sound' (11/82).

Mácal was born in Brno and started learning the violin aged four. He later studied both at the Conservatory in his home-city and at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts, graduating in 1960. His first major conductor post was as Principal Conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra. Major successes at the 1965 Besançon International Conducting Competition and the 1966 Dimitri Mitropoulos International Music Competition in New York further established his reputation.

In 1968, when the Soviets crushed the Prague Spring, Mácal left Czechoslovakia with his family, not to return until 1989 when the Communist regime was toppled. Following an invitation by Rafael Kubelík to conduct the Bavarian RSO, Mácal was appointed Chief Conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne. This was followed by conductorship of the NDR SO in Hanover. In 1972 he made his debut with the Chicago SO and soon after became Artistic Advisor of the San Antonio Symphony.

In 1986, he was appointed Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, but no sooner had he asked for the contract to be reduced from three years to one than he left before conducting a single concert of the agreed five. That year he became Music Director of the Milwaukee Symphony, making a much-admired recording of Smetana’s Má vlast for Telarc with them. His next post at the helm of the New Jersey Symphony with whom he recorded a major part of Dvořák’s orchestral and choral output for Delos and also made an admired recording of Glière’s Second Symphony and Red Poppy suite.

In 2003 he returned to take up a post in his native Czechoslovakia, becoming Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic. However, he resigned in 2007, one year before the contract was due to expire. The orchestra's Director David Mareček wrote that 'The Czech music community is losing an important person who has left a significant artistic and human mark not only in the Czech Philharmonic, but also in other orchestras. The Czech Philharmonic experienced its most intense period with Zdeněk Mácal from 2003 to 2007, when he was its Chief Conductor. In his work with the orchestra, he made use of both his deep relationship to Czech music and the experience he gained with a number of foreign orchestras.'

Mácal left a sizeable recorded catalogue including three recordings of the Dvořák Cello Concerto: one for DG with Anja Thauer (featuring the Czech PO), a second for Classics for Pleasure with Robert Cohen and the LPO, and a third for Czech Decca, with Sung-Won Yang (also with the Czech PO).