I am a great admirer of Karel Ancerl—his 1961 New World, for example, still seems to me one of the most grippingly cogent yet affectionate versions of that oft-recorded work. However, his 1963 Ma vlast doesn't quite strike me as one of his very finest things. By normal Czech Ancerl standards, it is all slightly low-key: certainly, one has heard more thrustful, vividly characterized accounts of ''Vltava'', though the finesse and delicacy of the orchestral response in the 'moonlight' episode undoubtedly ravishes the ear. Happily, tension-levels increase for both ''Tabor'' and ''Blanik''; in Ancerl's hands the latter portrait in particular assumes great nobility and excitement.In this latest transfer, Supraphon's sonics now seem uncomfortably woolly, with rather papery, brittle string tone (I don't recall the Crystal Collection equivalent from a few years back sounding quite as dated as this). Memorable in parts, then, but here is a disc to recommend primarily to Ancerl 'completists', I feel; newcomers should go for Kubelik's marvellous live performance from 1990 or the classic 1954 Talich account so warmly welcomed by RC in January.'