Bedrich Smetana: Ma vlast / My Country.

Bedrich Smetana Ma vlast / My Country Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Libor Pesek. Production: John H. West. Text: Eng., Ger., Fr. Recorded: May 1980, Phiharmonic Hall, Liverpool. First released: 1990. TT: 76:29. DDD. 1 CD EMI Records Ltd / Virgin Classics 50999 522129 25 (EMI).

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Libor Pesek conducted Smetana's My Country with his English orchestra at the opening of the Prague Spring in 1993. This was the first foreign orchestra ever to have been entrusted with the task (previously only foreign conductors had been invited). Of course, Libor Pesek was a guarantee of authentic style and the concert was not only successful beyond expectations but also opened up discussion of possible similar invitations and the chance to get to know different opinions from territories without a tradition of performance. In 1993 the recording we are describing, now published in a re-edition, was already to hand. After all these years it is still a very interesting recording. Even with the greatest will to bring something new to the piece, in their ideas of Smetana's My Country our orchestras keep close to the way it has been played in this country for more than a century, and specifically to the way it is performed on the various different recordings by Talich, Ancerl, Krombholc, Neumann, Kosler and other Czechs. While Libor Pesek brought part of this established concept to English instrumentalists, at the same time he had his own view, which showed his mentality, progressive thinking, a certain broadness of horizon gained through his feeling for performance--all of this resistant to conservative submersion in traditional interpretation particularly of Romantic works. In this recording we are witnesses to a more lyrical conception, and less epic pathos (even though the climax at the end is one of the best that can be heard). The Liverpool orchestra has very well balanced instrumental sections, although the string sound is perhaps less shining, warm and melodious than in our orchestras.

In this sense Vysehrad is conceived in poetic or even meditative terms, bringing out interesting and often surprising details--for example at the reprise the mysterious French horns are more audible than the harps and at the climax we can finally savour the harps as in few other recordings! In Vltava the revels of the water nymphs are as ravishing as can be expected, and the polka is merry, witty and even genial in dynamics (in the piano passages the woodwinds even predominate slightly over the strings). The broad stream of the river as it enters Prague is almost too sprightly and lithe, but this means that the entry of the Vysehrad theme, prepared for by a very effective ritardando, is all the more impressive. Sarka is very dramatic, Ctirad's ride is elegant. The love scene is conceived in a spirit more poetic than stormy, which may disappoint quite a lot of listeners, but the end brings a picture of destruction that is full of naturalism and drastic in impact. The introverted fugatto in From Bohemian Meadows and Forests sounds more like impressions than a speculative polyphonic texture. The final polka fantasy is treated in a faster tempo than is traditional and with a strong element of the dramatic. The structure of the chorale in Tabor is very fully thought out both in dynamics and expression. The unusually slow tempo is entirely appropriate to this architecture. And the development--which contrasts in tempo--stands out all the better for it. In Blanik--in addition to the familiar impressive march passages leading to the brilliant climax already mentioned--, the Liverpool woodwind players who play the pastoral intermezzo with noblesse and acoustic refinement will certainly enchant listeners.

The decision to publish this recording in a re-edition is a good one. Pesek's Liverpool My Country--like Kubelik's Boston recording--will be a lasting example of the kind of synthesis that a conductor who has a deep knowledge and feeling for the score can achieve with an orchestra not burdened by an established style derived from a single time-hallowed opinion.