The double significance of this rather special Má vlast is that it marks both the 200th anniversary of the Prague Conservatory’s first school year and the inspired decision to have the Prague Spring Festival open with a performance by students and recent graduates, in this case taken from the Conservatory’s talented ranks. The accompanying documentary eavesdrops on enthusiastic and demanding rehearsal sequences and chronicles the immense respect that the students have for Jiří Bělohlávek, his musicianship and his natural command of the music.

Bělohlávek had met the players two months prior to the concert in Policka, acoustically a very different beast to the larger Smetana Hall of the Municipal House where the actual concert took place. The final line-up consisted of 130 players including five harps, and the resulting performance is energetic, committed and cumulatively stirring. The video aspect of the production reveals just how ‘into’ the music everyone appears to be, their concentration and approving glances, and their collaborative enthusiasm. I loved the way the two bassoonists smiled at each other after their ‘snoring’ episode before the cataclysmic coda to Šárka. Certain violinists too seemed quite besotted by the same piece (one of them admitted as much in the documentary), as well as by the main theme of Vltava. Other high points include the latter half of From Bohemia’s Fields and Groves, which generates considerable levels of excitement, and the drama of the last two pieces, Tábor and Blaník, Bělohlávek broadening the tempo for the work’s final pages.

Granted, not everything is perfect – after all, this isn’t a mature Czech Philharmonic – and certain lines lack the ideal level of projection (the recording too tends to recede marginally at the fuller climaxes); but, given the youth and relative pooled inexperience of the players, it’s a remarkable achievement, one that I suspect they could only have managed in this particular work.