****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
The orchestral pieces, mostly conducted by the excellent Czech Libor Pesek are well performed and recorded. The short piano piece is fine. However, the performance of Smetana's great "In My Life" quartet is a complete disaster, incompetently performed and badly recorded. However, the excellence of the rest of the works makes this one of the better releases in this super-budget Vienna Masters series from Pilz.I should add that "Ma Vlast", as noted elsewhere, is presented with the second movement, the familiar "Vlatava" or "Die Moldau" first, and the first movement second. No particular reason. After that, the cycle is presented in order. Also, "Ma Vlast" appears to be cobbled together from two performances with a pair of different conductors - one being Pesek - and orchestras. It's really not a terribly distinguished performance,. That said, the "Bartered Bride" overture and dances on the first disc are quite well done. For "Ma Vlast", I'd recommend one of the Supraphon recordings, especially Kubelik's final live digital performance with the Czech Philharmonic. However, if you can get the budget Vienna Masters 2 disc set cheap, it's not a bad introduction to the work of the father of Czech music.
