There is only one questionable moment on this well-filled disc of Janácek orchestral music: the string-led apotheosis in the last movement of Taras Bulba, right after the first episode with organ and bells. Here, the tempo slackens and the Bergen violins sound relatively undernourished. Other than that, this very well engineered SACD offers nothing but pleasure, from the rhythmically sharp and passionate account of the Jealousy Overture, through a powerful account of the incomplete, mysterious Danube Symphony (with Susanna Andersson the excellent soprano in the third movement vocalise).
James Ehnes plays a terrific solo in the brief “Violin Concerto” (it’s only twelve minutes long) that later became the overture to From the House of the Dead, while the two tone poems, The Ballad of Baník and The Fiddler’s Child, are done about as well as they can be. Much of this music, including the rarely heard Fiddler’s Child, has already appeared on Chandos in very good performance by Jirí Belohlávek with the Czech Philharmonic, but Gardner’s more dynamic podium presence makes this newcomer the more desirable proposition, on the whole. You’ll be impressed.
