The Best of Czech Classics contains three of the best-known pieces of nineteenth century Czech music -- Smetana's Má Vlast and Dvorák's Slavonic Dances and "From the New World" Ninth Symphony -- and if neophyte listeners were looking for a single representative collection of Czech Romantic music, these three discs will fill the bill. Unfortunately, although all three works here are played by the great Czech Philharmonic, the performances are at best mediocre and at worst tedious. The fault lies not with the orchestra but with the conductors. The Má Vlast is superbly played -- from the harps that open it to the brass that close it, the Czech Philharmonic clearly knows and loves every note of the music -- but
Jirí Belohlávek, a conductor who has turned in many outstanding performances of Czech and non-Czech music, delivers an interpretation full of the usual conductorial tricks, like rushing developments and pulling back at climaxes, that only serve to diminish the brilliance of the playing and the magnificence of the music. The two sets of Dvorák's Slavonic Dances are also superbly played -- check out the irresistible rhythms and lighter-than-air woodwind playing -- but
Vaclav Neumann, a conductor who has turned in many dull performances of Czech and non-Czech music, delivers interpretations that do nothing but connect the dots from double bar to double bar. The "From the New World" Symphony is likewise superbly played -- check out the singing string lines in the opening Allegro molto and the hushed beauty of the chords that open the celebrated Largo -- but
Belohlávek, who went on to record fabulous performances of Dvorák's Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth symphonies, seems bored by his Ninth and delivers an interpretation that does nothing for the music that hasn't been done dozens of times before.
Belohlávek's fillers of Dvorák's well-known Carnival Overture and his rarely recorded Symphonic Variations are better than his symphony -- at least the conductor seems involved with the music -- but are in themselves no reason to pick up this set. Recorded between 1985 and 1990, Supraphon's early digital sound is loud but thin, big but dim.