Má vlast (My Homeland)
Bedřich Smetana
Recordings
Top Choice
Jiří Bělohlávek / Czech Philharmonic
2014 Recent recording, beautiful digital sound.Top choice (easy route, pick the newest one). Beautifully done, very dramatic and soulful. Can't go wrong. Idiomatic and easy to recommend.
Also Worth Hearing
Rafael Kubelik / Czech Philharmonic
1990 Live recording. Noisy, but good presence and detail.An absolutely dramatic, soulful, beautiful performance. The story behind it (Kubelik's return after the fall of communism) makes it an emotional event that lived up to its billing.
Václav Talich / Czech Philharmonic
1954 Mono, but sounds pretty good (vibrant, full, a bit rough).From a purely interpretive side, this is my 'Ma Vlast' of choice. Very dramatic, soulful. He knew this piece inside out. A top choice.
Václav Talich / Czech Philharmonic
1939 Live recording after Nazi takeover. Rough sounding, but not too bad.A real event. Performance is dramatic, but the circumstances (Nazi occupation) and the crowd (applause after every movement, spontaneous national anthem) add something incredible. A historic recording.