When listening to classical music is starting to get you down, when you've had enough of Wagner's incest and infidelities, enough
Mahler's storms and stresses, and more than enough of
Strauss' decadent excesses and opulent degeneracies, you know what the best thing is to clear the aural palate? Dvorák's Slavonic Dances. Ever ebullient and ever optimistic, always infectious and always memorable, Dvorák's Slavonic Dances will turn even the most despairing late Romantic frown upside down. Although there have been great recordings in the past --
George Szell's with the
Cleveland and
Rafael Kubelik's with the Bavarian Radio Symphony come immediately to mind -- this splendid 1999 recording with
Charles Mackerras leading the Czech Philharmonic may well rank with the very best of them. As he has amply demonstrated in his many previous recordings of Czech repertoire,
Mackerras has the lilt and the sweetness, the energy and the enthusiasm of this music down pat, and his phrasing is as natural as his tempos are unerringly well chosen. Needless to say, the members of the Czech Philharmonic have the music in their blood, and while their performances may to some seem perhaps too intimate in the central Trios, their alert rhythms and sturdy strength in the outer Dances are absolutely perfect. Anyone who loves the works -- and that ought to include everyone who loves music, life, and love -- will love these performances, particularly in Supraphon's clear, warm sound.