Search - Frantisek Jan Skroup, Bedrich Smetana, London Classical Players :: Smetana: Má Vlast (My Country); Czech National Anthem

Revelatory!

JJM Peters | Nijmegen, The Netherlands | 04/23/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ma Vlast is one of those pieces I know almost by heart, and my CD collection features several recordings of this piece by different ensembles and conductors. So, it's always nice to hear someone do something new to well known music. And Norrington being Sit Norrington, it's REALLY new.



Let me start with the few misgivings I have about this recording. Firstly, the balance is sometimes rather skewed. I understand that the orchestra comprises a smaller string group than usual and that these period instruments are played with gut string, giving them a softer sound. But still the brass is favoured too much to my liking and the piccolo can be downright annoying (apparently, period piccolo's can not be played softly or subtly). The second "misgiving" (if it can be called that) is that the recording is sometimes just a bit "academic". One sometimes misses the unsubtle heaviness of Czech players and conductors.



But still, what one gets in return is remarkable. Crystal clear dynamics throughout (how wonderful in the woodwinds in Sarka and the strings in Vltava!), remarkably controlled string playing, even in the fastest tempos and extremely rhythmical brass (the run to the final climax of Sarka is astonishing, certainly at the relatively low tempo that Norrington takes). Because the string group is relatively small and there is no undue vibrato articulation is crisp and every detail in the woodwind writing (especially the bassoons) is heard. Nowhere is the sound cluttered or does one get the feeling that the microphones are overwhelmed by the music. To the contrary, the recording is excellent which is really beneficial for the pastorale in the on most recordings quite dull last movement.



For anyone who already knows this music (or wishes to be introduced to it), I warmly recommend this recording, although it should always be accompanied by one of the more fullblooded Czech recordings!"

Musical but underpowered and undernourished

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 05/11/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"There is little Slavic about Norrington's approach to "Ma Vlast" except his attempt to reconcile the political reality of the music with today's ideas about 19th century performance practices. Norrington's work is generally fine -- highly musical with elucidated themes and spotlighted solos -- but lacks most of the heft and gusto Czech conductors have brought to the music in recordings going back to Talich.



It would be hard, perhaps impossible, to surpass Kubelik's 1950s-era mono recording of "Ma Vlast" with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on that old Mercury LP that was converted to an outstanding sounding CD. Many readers may not know Chicago was an official placement camp for Czech (as well as Polish) immigrants in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Indeed, my first generation immigrant grandparents, who left Czechoslovakia during World War I for the New World, were "assigned" to Chicago at Ellis Island, later making their way to Michigan.



I've never read any connection between this and the playing of the Chicago Symphony, which had a reputation in the Solti years as a great Wagner orchestra and has become somewhat undefined under the wayward style of Barenboim. But, for Kubelik in his famous recording of "Ma Vlast", they were the essence of Czech nationals with full-throated playing in one of the more outstanding mono recordings in history. Not even Kubelik's stereo remake with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra could cast a shadow over the fabulous and still enviable Chicago recording.



Certainly this underpowered recording led by Norrington can't, either. There is plenty of unique touches in his rendition and the addition of beginning the concert with the Czech national anthem, which he says was the standard when this music was performed in the homeland, adds a touch of authority. But this performance, while musical, is simply not charged enough to pull off the nationalist tendencies Smetana wrote into these highly colored pictures of "my homeland".



Norrington enthusiasts can take recompense knowing he re-recorded three bleeding chunks of "Ma Vlast" with Great Britain's youth orchestra for a BBC Music Magazine recording in 2007 they may be able to locate (ASIN: B000LZJWC6 -- see my review from April 19, 2007). Compared to this issue, the latter performances are better sounding, having greater emotional projection, are more nationalistic, and come on a CD with fine performances from other conductors and orchestras playing Dvorak's "Wild Dove" and "Noon Witch" tone poems. All three performances were recorded in concert and have the kinetic energy of live performance, another element sorely lacking in this recording."