Smetana Má Vlast
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Bedřich Smetana
Label: Living Presence
Magazine Review Date: 6/1997
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 76
Mastering:
Mono
ADD
Catalogue Number: 434 379-2MM
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Má vlast |
Bedřich Smetana, Composer
Bedřich Smetana, Composer Chicago Symphony Orchestra Rafael Kubelík, Conductor |
Author:
The first of Rafael Kubelik’s five Ma vlasts was something of a demonstration item in its day and although Mercury’s painstaking transfer – an absolute model of its kind – confirms a strong bass-line and a surprisingly wide dynamic range, the overall sound-picture lacks the realistic perspective and pinpoint clarity of Kubelik’s Pictures at an Exhibition (see “Replay”, 2/97). Distortion has been partially tamed, but there can be no denying that this is – and sounds – an ‘old recording’.
The performance has many virtues: organ-like brass sonorities in “Vysehrad”, sweet-toned flutes in the night scene from “Vltava” (and a fastidiously articulated first flute in the first two bars), powerful trombones in “Sarka” (though the cymbals that normally colour the dance sequence from 1'14'' are missing) and great weight of tone at the start of “From Bohemia’s Woods and Fields”. Orchestral execution is sometimes a little ragged (for example, second violins, violas and cellos at 0'58'' into “Vltava”) but the hand of a master – and a highly sympathetic master at that – is always evident.
Having said that, I have to admit a marked preference for at least three Kubelik alternatives. The 1990 live Czech PO performance takes time to gain momentum but includes the most imposing “Tabor” of all. “Sarka” is at her most passionate in the Decca VPO recording now on Belart (the Viennese strings are fully the equal of Talich’s Czech Philharmonic), though the sound quality is rather tubby and stereo definition is poor. Best of all is Orfeo’s Munich recording which, although less overtly dramatic than this Chicago account (it is also marginally slower), has an ease of expression and vivid sense of narrative that I find perennially refreshing. The DG Boston disc is the best drilled of the five, but the least persuasive as an interpretation.
Pending the appearance of a live BRSO/Kubelik Ma vlast on CD (at least one superb televised performance exists), collectors are directed to the Orfeo disc in the first instance, the Supraphon in the second, Belart for the best “Sarka” (the score’s dramatic high point) and Mercury primarily for a vivid souvenir of Kubelik’s Chicago sojourn.'
The performance has many virtues: organ-like brass sonorities in “Vysehrad”, sweet-toned flutes in the night scene from “Vltava” (and a fastidiously articulated first flute in the first two bars), powerful trombones in “Sarka” (though the cymbals that normally colour the dance sequence from 1'14'' are missing) and great weight of tone at the start of “From Bohemia’s Woods and Fields”. Orchestral execution is sometimes a little ragged (for example, second violins, violas and cellos at 0'58'' into “Vltava”) but the hand of a master – and a highly sympathetic master at that – is always evident.
Having said that, I have to admit a marked preference for at least three Kubelik alternatives. The 1990 live Czech PO performance takes time to gain momentum but includes the most imposing “Tabor” of all. “Sarka” is at her most passionate in the Decca VPO recording now on Belart (the Viennese strings are fully the equal of Talich’s Czech Philharmonic), though the sound quality is rather tubby and stereo definition is poor. Best of all is Orfeo’s Munich recording which, although less overtly dramatic than this Chicago account (it is also marginally slower), has an ease of expression and vivid sense of narrative that I find perennially refreshing. The DG Boston disc is the best drilled of the five, but the least persuasive as an interpretation.
Pending the appearance of a live BRSO/Kubelik Ma vlast on CD (at least one superb televised performance exists), collectors are directed to the Orfeo disc in the first instance, the Supraphon in the second, Belart for the best “Sarka” (the score’s dramatic high point) and Mercury primarily for a vivid souvenir of Kubelik’s Chicago sojourn.'
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