Refreshingly clean-cut, unusually mobile readings of both works from Gabriela Demeterova, enthusiastically partnered by Libor Pesek and his responsive Prague orchestra. In point of fact, it’s Pesek’s characterful accompaniment that more often than not provides the focus of attention: his woodwinds are certainly a personable presence in the concerto’s central Adagio ma non troppo (which lasts a provocative 8'39'' – that’s some two to three minutes swifter than any rival version I know), and he holds together the altogether freer structure of the Suk Fantasy with customary aplomb and evident affection (as his RLPO/Virgin Classics series – 9/91, 1/94, 8/95 and 11/98 – has so amply demonstrated, Pesek has an uncommon empathy for this most engaging of composers). With her silvery tone and easy technical address, Demeterova (a pupil of Nora Grumlikova and winner of the 1993 Menuhin Competition) leaves an appealing impression, but her playing as yet perhaps lacks something in expressive fibre and personality (I crave a fraction more in the way of gleeful, mischievous point in the finale of the Dvorak).
A likeable disc on the whole, pleasingly engineered, but if it’s this particular coupling you’re after, I’d turn in preference to the inimitable (and still vivid-sounding) Suk/Ancerl partnership from the 1960s, the most recent reissue of which also throws in a radiant account of the Dvorak Romance for good measure.'