Rafael Kubelik could be said to have “owned” Smetana’s Má Vlást. He certainly recorded it (at least commercially) more than any other conductor. This 1959 Vienna Philharmonic performance is not his earliest (being preceded by the mono Chicago Symphony recording on Mercury) nor is it his best. What it does have going for it however, is Kubelik’s idiosyncratic way with the music, something that has not been matched by any other conductor. Everything flows naturally, as if issuing forth from the Moldau herself, and each of the six tone poems’ varied elements, from the rustic, to the festive, to the patriotic, come to the fore yet relate logically to one another. Passion runs high here too, especially in Kubelik’s driven Šárka (always a specialty). Still, this is not the VPO’s best performance either (that would come decades later with James Levine), but they certainly play better here than they did in Strauss for Fritz Reiner just three years earlier. In fact, for sheer orchestral splendor no one has bested the Boston Symphony’s 1970’s DG recording under, guess who? Rafael Kubelik! That performance is the Má Vlást to get (and quickly, while you still can). Otherwise, Eloquence’s reissue of Decca’s dry, shallow and tubby recording makes for a passable budget alternative.
