Customer Rating: 
Summary: Don't miss this Ma Vlast
Comment: Reunited with the Czech Philharmonic- for the first time in 42 years. Kubelik gives a tour-de-force performance that only cannot be matched. Both the Orchestra and Kubelik give a sense of nationalistic pride in
the new free Czech republic. If you can only have one recording of Ma Vlast this is the one to have. Simply untouchable!
Customer Rating:
Summary: The last, warm-hearted Ma Vlast from Kubelik in 1990
Comment: Rafael Kubelik recorded Ma Vlast five times over the long span of his career, and each version has a special quality. Here, in advanced age and poor health, he gives a valedictory reading that is notably warm-hearted and lyrical. The epic side of Smetana's expansive landscape portrait isn't emphasized as it is in versions from Vaclav Talich, James Levine, or the younger Kubelik himself. As other reviewers have noted, the conductor had just returned to his homeland after deaces of self-imposed exile. Only a year had passed since the Czechs freed themselves from Soviet domination. One might expect therefore a tempestuous, emphatically nationalistic reading.
We don't get one, however -- the sense of occasion is celebratory and vivacious, as mirrored in Kubelik's consistently fast pacing. This reading is at the opposite remove from Harnoncourt's for RCA/BMG, which is studied, detailed, and inward-looking. As for the orchestral and recording quality, the glowing, soft-grained timbre of the Czech Phil. is perfeclty suited to these rustic sketches; no one else, with the possible exception of the Vienna Phil., sounds so completely at home in Smetana's idiom. However, don't expect the same dazzling virtuosity as one gets from Vienna; the Moldau (Vltava in Czech) flows urgently here but without the brilliance one hears under Karajan and Fricsay. The recorded sound is clear but not vivid; the strings sound muzzy to me, and the sonic surface is rather dull overall. But that's a minor drawback to what is otherwise a wonderful performance and a CD that became an instant classic.
Customer Rating:
Summary: You will always tell that this is the most emotional Ma Vlast
Comment: Kubelik's live recording of Smetana's nationalistic "Ma Vlast" is an excellent one. I've heard one other recording of Vlast by Jiri Belohlavek with the same orchestra, CPO. It was a good one: Vltava was a bit better than Kubelik's rendition for its grander take on lyricism. But the rest of the movements didn't have the fire and lushness of Kubelik's recording. So like I said, this is an excellent one. Orchestra is very fine: the strings don't make any mistakes, the brass don't overblow it in any way (except in the last movement), and the woodwinds have an enchanting sound that you can find in Karajan's Berlin Philharmonic, or Jarvi's Gothenburg Symphony. And, finally, best of all, the audience is very quiet during the performance, and their applause is only apparent in the last movement.
In the future, I might try other recordings of Smetana's masterpiece (like, say, Mackerras and the CPO, or Jarvi with the Detroit Symphony). But for now, I'll enjoy myself with this CD, and many other CD's in my collection.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: one distraction to consider
Comment: I would agree with the accolades regarding recording quality and artistic beauty of this CD. I had only one problem which nagged at me and prompted a search of other recordings. Rafael Kubelik's tempo of the second poem (Vltava) is a bit fast, not allowing one to fully appreciate the wonderment of the opening lines of the flute. This may not bother most, but it is something a buyer might want to consider.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Performance!!!
Comment: We performed Smetana's The Moldau back in my younger days as a cellist with the South Arkansas Symphony. Smetana has remained one of my favorite composers over the years. This version...especially the 5th (Tabor) movement...is wonderful. The lower strings blow me away. I have several versions of Ma Vlast...this is the only one I own on CD...but this one is a must hear!
Hal Munford
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