Here is a generally satisfying programme, though the ‘Nature’ component of ‘Nature, Life and Love’, In Nature’s Realm, isn’t the place to dip in first: the opening is soggy and, come the second half of the first idea (at around 2'00"), the requisite level of exhilaration is entirely lacking. Among the tried and tested, Karel Šejna and the Czech Philharmonic (coupled with Smetana’s ‘Swedish’ tone-poems) is without parallel for verdant freshness, though Bohumil Gregor, Václav Talich (far broader) and Karel Ančerl – all with the Czech Phil and all on Supraphon – run ejna pretty close, Ančerl especially. Jakub Hrůša is usefully attentive to woodwind and brass detail: join his performance at 5'19" and note how he allows his wind players scope for expressive variation. Carnival is better, well paced and vivacious, though even there a reluctance to draw out the lovely second subject throws me back to earlier recordings. Kubelík with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (DG) is both more bracing and more lyrical. Othello is atmospherically played but again there’s a vintage forerunner that focuses Hrůša’s relative lack of drama, this time from London, the LSO under Witold Rowicki, part of his admirable Dvořák series now out on Decca (beam up Rowicki at 4'12", the first idea in the main section of the overture, and compare the LSO’s precise pointing with the Prague Phiharmonia’s softer-grained approach).

The same sort of thing happens around 5'45" into the Hussite Overture, a crucial corner in the writing, cueing a ritardando where Rowicki negotiates an expert turn but Hrůša (at 5'16") doesn’t sound nearly as comfortable. Rowicki’s performance is majestic, defiant and ultimately uplifting, Hrůša’s attentive, well played and very well recorded, but little more than that. My Home is given what is possibly the best performance on the disc, energised and lilting but hardly enough to warrant a front-ranking recommendation. Pentatone’s sound is warm and transparent.