Smetana: Má Vlast

Bedrich Smetana (Composer), Rafael Kubelik (Conductor), Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Rafael Kubelik
• Composer: Bedrich Smetana
• Audio CD (October 15, 1996)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mercury
• ASIN: B0000057NA
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #260,623 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Ma Vlast ('My Country'), Symphonic Cycle: Vysehrad ('The High Castle')

2. Ma Vlast ('My Country'), Symphonic Cycle: Vltava ('The Moldau')

3. Ma Vlast ('My Country'), Symphonic Cycle: Sarka

4. Ma Vlast ('My Country'), Symphonic Cycle: Z ceskych luhu a haju ('From Bohemia's Meadows And Forests')

5. Ma Vlast ('My Country'), Symphonic Cycle: Tabor

6. Ma Vlast ('My Country'), Symphonic Cycle: Blanik

Editorial Reviews

Out-of-print CD, Cover Art and Liner Notes in excellent - 6 tracks of music - Bedrich Smetana's "My Country" Symphonic Cycle, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Rafael Kubelik, with the oustanding Mercury Living Presence sound

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SOME MONO RECORDINGS SOUND BETTER THAN SOME STEREO, June 22, 2000

By 

ernest a. dupont (Pembroke, ON Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Smetana: Má Vlast (Audio CD)

Rafael Kubelik, that careful craftsman who did such a great job on works by Dvorak (New World Symphony) and Mahler (Symphony No. 1), presents his homeland in wonderful musical fashion. Listen very carefully to the 4th section (From Bohemia's Forests and Meadows): echoes of the land, whispering and yearning... so well rendered in its minute detail. The whole work is articulated and played with great precision. It is surely a credit to Kubelik, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Mercury sound engineers that this mono recording sounds better than a lot of stereo recordings. Sound quality: 10 out of 10. Performance: 10 also.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Surprisingly Vivid Recording of a Neglected CSO Conductor, September 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Smetana: Má Vlast (Audio CD)

This CD is one of several re-releases of the famed Mercury recordings of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Rafael Kubelik. Mercury pioneered the one microphone technique for its monaural recordings. This CD is one of such recordings. On the technical side, this recording is unbelievably vivid. The sound is not unduly compressed--the orchestra's fullness can be easily felt.

Kubelik's tenure at Chicago Symphony Orchestra was brief--only about three years or so. Reputed as a gentleman with a sensitive personality, Kubelik shows his artistic sensitivity in the Smetana work. Ma Vlast is series of symphonic poems, not just a collection of pieces representing places in Bohemia. Kubelik, a Czech who left his homeland (then under Communist rule), respects the poetic side of the symphonic poems and thus tries to convey us his longing for the places that are named in this series. I find Kubelik's readings of Vysehrad (High Castle), Sarka (the third of the six "poems") and Tabor (the fifth of the six "poems") to be particularily telling; the readings evoke best Kubelik's emotion as a Czech and bring out the spirit of the more sensitive pre-Reiner Chicago Symphony.

I highly recommend this CD for Kubelik's sensitve treatment of this popular work.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very fine recording, February 18, 2000

By 

J. Buxton "cantabile" (Waltham, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Smetana: Má Vlast (Audio CD)

This is a very fine performance of Ma Vlast, with state of the art sound (for its time). The CSO plays with much character and idiomatic feeling, and let's face it, nobody ever conducted this work better than Kubelik. The Czech personality of the piece comes through very strongly. It is a pity that Kubelik's finest recording of this work is quite difficult to find, his live digital recording of this piece shortly before he died with the Czech Philharmonic on the Supraphon label. If you find it grab it! Otherwise this Chicago version will certainly bring much listening pleasure.