Czech Po:Talich - SMETANA: Ma Vlast

A superb conductor of Smetana's music, including the operas, Talich made three recordings of 'M?� Vlast'. This 1954 performance, taped within the fine acoustics of the Dvor?�k Hall (Rudolfinum), just yards from the River Vltava, is a magnificent realisation of Smetana's musical intentions. Talich's buoyant rhythm in the opening bars of 'Vltava', and the passionate phrasing he draws from the vibrant strings and the rustic woodwinds of the Czech Philharmonic, are just some of the outstanding features of this great recording. With its extraordinary technical control, uncanny rhythmic sense and subtle flexibility, Talich's reading builds inexorably, so that the final section made up of the thematically linked 'T?�bor' and 'Blan?�k' comes as a fiery culmination.