It’s always gratifying when non-Czech performers take up this work, not just for the fresh insights that they bring, but also because great music needs to be freed from nationalist or parochial points of view that prevent its wider dissemination and presentation. To their credit, the Czechs never have suggested that others should not perform their best music, or that foreigners do not do so correctly. Certainly Colin Davis and the LSO turn in a vivid, exciting account of Smetana’s perennially fresh, dramatic cycle of tone poems in praise of his homeland. Tempos tend to be swift, which is particularly gratifying in the Tábor and Blaník, the two weakest items, which can quickly sound repetitious if not played for all they’re worth. To his credit, Davis does just that, making for one of the more effective conclusions on disc.
In fact, Davis makes only one serious miscalculation: at the end of Sárka, when the trombones enter with their stern proclamations separated by violent orchestral interjections, Davis cuts the tempo in half for some strange reason. It’s an effect as vulgar as it is pointless, undermining the momentum that he has so energetically whipped up in the previous pages. Aside from that, you get a grand and glowing Vysehrad (really nice harps) and a marvelous Vltava, with particularly vivid “hunting” and “storm” episodes. Note also how, in the coda, the LSO trumpets take care to get the rhythm of their rising arpeggios right, something that even Czech performers can’t guarantee.
From Bohemia’s Woods and Fields also is unusually bright and clear, aided by typically transparent but dry sonics. If you have SACD multichannel capability, playback in this mode adds a welcome degree of warmth and a sense of room acoustic, with no loss of impact. But most of all, and leaving aside questions of detail, all of the best performances of this work must convey a sense of occasion, of a big event taking place. The piece is, after all, an epic of sorts, and there’s no question that in this live performance Davis and the LSO have managed to capture this elusive quality. That makes it one of the finer modern recordings available, and no one who loves this music is likely to be disappointed as a result.
