It is good to find this delectable work, long neglected, being effectively brought into the regular canon, with two more fine performances to add to the existing ones I have listed. Though it was never officially called ''The Pastoral'', that was a nickname which was sometimes attached to No. 5, or No. 3 as it was in the old numbering. That makes Pesek's coupling particularly apt; the charming Czech Suite complete with its rustic flavour and folk-dances. As in his earlier Dvorak recordings for Virgin, both with his own Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and with the Czech Philharmonic as here, Pesek takes a crisp, cleancut view of the composer, markedly cooler and less warmly expressive than Jansons, or for that matter Jarvi. The distancing of the Prague sound, refined and clean-textured in an open acoustic, makes for rather cooler results too, though with such freshness in the playing and the interpretation from native Czechs, the performance has plenty of power as well as authenticity.
Even so, with such lovable music, more affectionate treatment pays even greater dividends. Jarvi's Chandos version brought a performance more warmly persuasive than any we had on record before, and now Jansons has capped even that. The pastoral opening with its theme for two clarinets over shimmering strings is even subtler and more relaxed here than with Jarvi, and to my delight the EMI engineers have produced sound in the difficult acoustic of the Oslo Konserthus that gives just the bloom needed, combined with warmth and clarity. Since Jansons started recording for EMI, I have been hoping for just such a felicitous performance and recording, and this Dvorak now fully matches the achievement of his Oslo Tchaikovsky series for Chandos. As in his Tchaikovsky, Jansons has a way of drawing out expressive phrasing to make it sound totally natural, without self-consciousness. The slow movement is just as warmly lyrical as with Jarvi, but more refined, and generally the playing of the Oslo orchestra is more polished than that of the SNO, with cleaner textures enhanced by the recording. The scherzo is done with a playful lilt, and with the horn whoops (bar 113, 1'57'') more exuberant than in any of the rival versions. Jansons crowns his reading with an account of the finale which at the start dramatically hammers home the surprise of Dvorak's use of the minor mode and his deliberate avoidance of establishing the home key of F major. The arrival of that key at last is then all the more warmly satisfying, leading almost at once to the lusciousness of D flat major and the soaring second subject (fig. C, 2'36''), where the Oslo violins play with a passion to make the others seem almost uncommitted; Pesek's cooler, sparer approach provides a marked contrast.
In every way except one this is a model performance. Maybe influenced by Dvorak's disowning of the exposition repeat marks in No. 6, Jansons—as in his New World (reviewed 1/90)—fails to observe that first movement repeat here too. With such a magical movement, I must say I would have welcomed the repeat, and all the others do observe it, even Kertesz (Decca), but Jansons in compensation has a more generous coupling than any. He gives the Scherzo capriccioso in another lilting, exuberant performance, with the Poco tranquillo in the middle (bar 355, 4'51'') lovingly drawn out, though understandably the repeat is not observed. He also has the overture, Othello, which on CD has been strangely neglected.'