Smetana's Dům

[Brahmsian]

So, these are the recordings I am potentially considering:

[Brahmsian]

We're up to page 3, yay! 

[pjme]

Some "Leckerbissen" by Smetana ( smetana = sour cream/Schmand...) :

[Harry]

So, these are the recordings I am potentially considering:

Those Kuchar recordings are not bad at all. But at least Ma Vlast is much better recorded, so for that you may want to look elsewhere.

[Brahmsian]

Those Kuchar recordings are not bad at all. But at least Ma Vlast is much better recorded, so for that you may want to look elsewhere.

Thanks Harry.  I already have Ma Vlast with Kubelik/Vienna - 1959 recording.

[Harry]

Thanks Harry.  I already have Ma Vlast with Kubelik/Vienna - 1959 recording.

That's the recording to go for!!!!

[Brian]

I have all the Kuchar recordings in the big Brilliant Kuchar box, which also includes his Nielsen cycle, Shostakovich, Latin American classics, and Dvorak. You can usually find it for US $35-40. Like Harry said, the Ma Vlast is not the best, but the rest of it - the things you want to collect - are very good. He is a reliable guide to little-known music. That looks like a good shopping list.

By the way, the piece I was blown away by is Wallenstein's Camp. It is structured like a true symphonic poem, i.e., it is not structured  the opening is shocking, it drops you head-first into the action. Things get less exciting after about 30 seconds, but throughout the whole rest of the piece, the images and colors involve really unusual, surprising solo parts, rhythms, and "plot twists" in the music. And at the end, every motif comes back together again for a big climax. The Kuchar performance is really thrilling but I also have it in the Kubelik complete DG box.

[Brahmsian]

I have all the Kuchar recordings in the big Brilliant Kuchar box, which also includes his Nielsen cycle, Shostakovich, Latin American classics, and Dvorak. You can usually find it for US $35-40. Like Harry said, the Ma Vlast is not the best, but the rest of it - the things you want to collect - are very good. He is a reliable guide to little-known music. That looks like a good shopping list.

By the way, the piece I was blown away by is Wallenstein's Camp. It is structured like a true symphonic poem, i.e., it is not structured  the opening is shocking, it drops you head-first into the action. Things get less exciting after about 30 seconds, but throughout the whole rest of the piece, the images and colors involve really unusual, surprising solo parts, rhythms, and "plot twists" in the music. And at the end, every motif comes back together again for a big climax. The Kuchar performance is really thrilling but I also have it in the Kubelik complete DG box.

Thanks, I was curious which piece you were talking about yesterday.

[Harry]

I have all the Kuchar recordings in the big Brilliant Kuchar box, which also includes his Nielsen cycle, Shostakovich, Latin American classics, and Dvorak. You can usually find it for US $35-40. Like Harry said, the Ma Vlast is not the best, but the rest of it - the things you want to collect - are very good. He is a reliable guide to little-known music. That looks like a good shopping list.

By the way, the piece I was blown away by is Wallenstein's Camp. It is structured like a true symphonic poem, i.e., it is not structured  the opening is shocking, it drops you head-first into the action. Things get less exciting after about 30 seconds, but throughout the whole rest of the piece, the images and colors involve really unusual, surprising solo parts, rhythms, and "plot twists" in the music. And at the end, every motif comes back together again for a big climax. The Kuchar performance is really thrilling but I also have it in the Kubelik complete DG box.

Noseda on Chandos is also a good option. Stunning sonics too.

[Brahmsian]

It also looks like the pianist from the Smetana Trio, Jitka Cechová, has recorded at least 7 volumes of piano music on Supraphon for Smetana.  Does anyone have these and can provide comments and feedback?

[Roasted Swan]

It also looks like the pianist from the Smetana Trio, Jitka Cechová, has recorded at least 7 volumes of piano music on Supraphon for Smetana.  Does anyone have these and can provide comments and feedback?

That's odd - I posted a comment yesterday about exactly Cechová's survey so don't know where that went.  I think she is very good indeed - the only possible thing is that by being "complete" the major/most interesting works are spread across the survey so you tend to get major works alongside quite minor stuff.  All interesting and certainly well played but my guess is there might be other single or two disc surveys which will give you the key works only.  As a unrepentant "completist" I'm happy to have the 7 disc set but I can imagine others getting "polka'd out....."!!!

[pjme]

Supraphon

"The focus of Jitka Čechová's repertoire is on works by the Czech composers – Smetana, Dvořák, Janáček, and Martinů. She has given two concerts consisting of works by Smetana at the world-famous Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. Zdeněk Lukáš dedicated his Third Piano Concerto to her, which she premiered with spectacular success during her concert tour of Germany with the Symphony Orchestra Südwestfunk (cond. Petr Altrichter).

In 2014 – in the year of Bedrich Smetana´s jubilee – she finished her recording of the complete piano works by Bedřich Smetana for Supraphon (8 CDs), a project that has collected awards by major music critics and magazines both at home and abroad – Diapason, Répertoire, International Record Review, and Harmonie. Recently she made a recording of all three piano concertos and concertino written by Josef Palenicek in the cooperation with the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra (cond. Ronald Zollman and Stanislav Vavrinek). Presently she is cooperating on the large project of the complete sonatas recordning by Domenico Scarlatti for the Czech Radio.
She has given master classes in Prague, London, the Northern College of Music in Manchester, Brasilia and Campos do Jordao in Brazil, the Colburn School University in Los Angeles, Eau Claire in Wisconsin, and in Luxemburg."

https://www.jitkacechova.com/en/repertoire

[Florestan]

my guess is there might be other single or two disc surveys which will give you the key works only.  As a unrepentant "completist" I'm happy to have the 7 disc set but I can imagine others getting "polka'd out....."!!!

[Franco_Manitobain]

First listen to this - disc 2:

Wallenstein's Camp, Op. 14
Hakon Jarl, Op. 16
Richard III, Op. 11
The Bartered Bride Overture and Three Dances
Doktor Faust Overture to the puppet play by Matej Kopecky
Venkovanka, The Peasant Woman, Polka
Nasim Devam, To our Girls, Polka

Thrilling orchestral music!  Listened yesterday to disc 1 (Ma Vlast) and I really enjoyed the recording (much better than the impression other members were giving it).

[Pohjolas Daughter]

That's odd - I posted a comment yesterday about exactly Cechová's survey so don't know where that went.  I think she is very good indeed - the only possible thing is that by being "complete" the major/most interesting works are spread across the survey so you tend to get major works alongside quite minor stuff.  All interesting and certainly well played but my guess is there might be other single or two disc surveys which will give you the key works only.  As a unrepentant "completist" I'm happy to have the 7 disc set but I can imagine others getting "polka'd out....."!!!

So, do you know how to polka RS?  It can be a lot of fun. 

PD

[Karl Henning]

@DavidW just tipped me off to this YouTube commentator, and this is the second show of his I've watched:

[Roasted Swan]

@DavidW just tipped me off to this YouTube commentator, and this is the second show of his I've watched:

I remember seeing that concert when it was broadcast live on British TV (the BBC I assume but can't remember).  Talk about a performance laden with extra-musical significance and meaning!  Just stunning and still one of my very favourite versions of Ma Vlast.........

[DavidW]

I love Ancerl (and just listened to it a few days ago) and also the more modern Bĕlohlávek that I have... but I'll have to check out the other ones mentioned in the video.

[Maestro267]

Another Bicentenary composer for 2024!

[Pohjolas Daughter]

@DavidW just tipped me off to this YouTube commentator, and this is the second show of his I've watched:

I didn't even have to watch it to know that it's one of my favorites (and also well regarded) versions of Ma Vlast:  love it!  I'm taking it that he likes it...or am I wrong (also judging by others comments here)?  Will have to look into his postings.

PD