Search - Bedrich Smetana, Colin Davis, London Symphony Orchestra :: Smetana: Má vlast

A middle-of-the-road performance but spectacular sound

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 05/19/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The home of the LSO is the acoustically dreadful Barbican Hall, one of the poorest venues that any major orchestra uses now that Philadelphia's Academy of Music is out of the running. But thanks to superlative producer-engineer Tony Falulkner, amazingly vivid recordings have been coming from there. This LSO Live release of Smetana's Ma Vlast features a genial, often energized reading from Sir Colin Davis, one of his most buoyant recent efforts. But it's the great sonics that are the star. Even without surround sound SACD, this CD has great impact, and the marvelous oloists of the LSO are caught close up for maximum color and panache."

Not even good enough for SACD?

Hannibal | Los Angeles, CA USA | 06/18/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In fact, there IS an SACD disc of this performance (currently listed as No.82 by Amazon for some unknown reason), and the many beauties of this wonderful performance deserves nothing less.



Do give it a try. You won't regret it."

A Solid "Ma Vlast" But Not As Powerful As It Could Be

J. Rich | 06/11/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Sir Colin Davis is captured on this recording with the London Symphony Orchestra in a rare performance of Smetana's "Ma Vlast." This is a very good reading, but it lacks the punch of Rafael Kubelik's accounts on Deutsche Grammophon with the Boston Symphony Orch. and on Supraphon with the Czech Philharmonic Orch. James Levine, Libor Pesek, Neeme Jarvi, and Charles Mackerras have turned in good performances of "Ma Vlast" as well that are worth checking out.



The audio quality, however, is excellent. This recording has also been released as a hybrid SACD. I imagine that sound is unbelievable in surround sound.



This is a good overall interpretation and performance, but it wouldn't be my first choice for this piece. Sir Colin Davis usually does a fine job, but his true specialty, for me, are his interpretations of Berlioz and Sibelius."