The Czech recording has a German conductor and the German recording has a Czech conductor. I have little hesitation in preferring Kubelik's DG set, on several scores. In general he takes rather faster, more fluent tempos, bringing him closer not only to Dvorak's metronome markings but, which is what matters, to the spirit of a work that is predominantly lyrical in its response to the poem. Sawallisch seems to be in more doubt about the validity of Dvorak's intentions in that he is contantly concerned to bring out whatever gravity and reflectiveness can be discovered in the music. The ''Tui nati'' has a much better flow with Kubelik: there is a true sense of an almost lilting two-in-a-bar pulse as opposed to Sawallisch's emphasis of the quaver movement. In the ''Fac me vere'', Wieslaw Ochman is similarly easy and affecting without lack of any devotion, where Dvorsky is encouraged, one suspects, to be more solemn. The ''Fac ut ardeat'' has Shirley-Quirk singing warmly and expressively for Kubelik where Rootering is certainly bolder and more positive but a touch over-emphatic for the music. Ortrun Wenkel and Anna Reynolds both have rather a strong vibrato in the ''Inflammatus'', but sing it warmly and well; but when they are joined by their soprano for ''Fac, ut portem'', there is no comparison between Benackova-Capova's almost lachrymose intensity and Mathis's beautifully graceful yet expressively tender singing.
In sum, Kubelik seems more willing to take a somewhat unusual work on its own terms than Sawallisch, who tries to discover in it a more devout solemnity than it, rather than the poem, contains. Both recordings are excellent, with the soloists intelligently placed so as to blend where need be with the chorus but not dominate them.'