Smetana - Ma vlast
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Label: Pentatone
Cat No: PTC5187203
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Orchestral
Release Date: 1st March 2024
Contents
Artists
Czech PhilharmonicConductor
Semyon BychkovAbout
The Czech Philharmonic and its Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov present a new recording of Bedřich Smetana’s masterpiece Má vlast (My Homeland). The album celebrates both the bicentenary of Smetana's birth and, the start of 2024's Year of Czech Music which has been celebrated every ten years since Smetana's 100th anniversary in 1924. Má vlast (1874-1878) is a potent symbol of the Czech Republic's turbulent political history and has played an important role in the Czech national movement. Contemplating the landscape, history, and legends of Bohemia, Má vlast is best known for its world-famous Moldau melody. For Bychkov, who was born in Russia before emigrating to the United States, and now lives in France, the question of 'the homeland' is particularly poignant - how to take pride in the best of its heritage, while also coming to terms with its darker pages. For the Orchestra to revisit this seminal piece with Bychkov, with whom it has developed such a close working relationship over the past few years, makes the recording all the more personal and topical.
The Czech Philharmonic is one of the world’s orchestral gems, recognised for its rich tradition with the Czech masters as well as European repertoire. Semyon Bychkov who is internationally renowned for his interpretations of the core repertoire, began his tenure with the Orchestra at the start of the 2018/19 season. Together, they have so far recorded for Pentatone Mahler’s First, Second, Fourth and Fifth Symphonies (2022-2023), part of the complete Mahler cycle to be released by the label. The Orchestra is also featured on the album Folk Songs (2023) recorded by Magdalena Kožená and Sir Simon Rattle.
The Czech Philharmonic is one of the world’s orchestral gems, recognised for its rich tradition with the Czech masters as well as European repertoire. Semyon Bychkov who is internationally renowned for his interpretations of the core repertoire, began his tenure with the Orchestra at the start of the 2018/19 season. Together, they have so far recorded for Pentatone Mahler’s First, Second, Fourth and Fifth Symphonies (2022-2023), part of the complete Mahler cycle to be released by the label. The Orchestra is also featured on the album Folk Songs (2023) recorded by Magdalena Kožená and Sir Simon Rattle.
Sound/Video
Paused
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11. Vyšehrad
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22. Vltava
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33. Šárka
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44. Z českých luhů a hájů
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55. Tábor
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66. Blaník
Europadisc Review
This year’s Smetana bicentenary – marking 200 years since the Czech composer’s birth – will be marked internationally, but nowhere will it have quite as high a profile as in his homeland. And it is his work of the same name comprising six symphonic poems, Má vlast (‘My Homeland’), that is likely to be most played of all, whether in individual parts or as a complete cycle. The Czech Philharmonic has long had ‘custodianship’ of this work, and the latest in their illustrious list of recordings is released on the Pentatone label under their current chief conductor, Semyon Bychkov.
For Bychkov, Russian-born but with an early career in the US which saw him take American citizenship, and more recently resident in France, the notion of ‘homeland’ is a complex one: ‘It is as natural to be proud of one’s heritage as it is painful to recognize and atone for the stains on one’s history. Yet both are needed equally if humanity is to survive and prosper.’ Má vlast, which (as we saw recently in our Spin Doctor column of 17 January) looks to the past, present, and indeed future, unfolds a tapestry that celebrates Czechness in legendary, contemporary and hopeful forms. It is no mere exercise in tub-thumping nationalism (some performances rather overdo the percussive elements), but contains some of the most gorgeously searching music Smetana ever wrote.
Bychkov and his Czech musicians take a relatively broad view of Má vlast, as has become customary in recent years. Jakub Hrůša and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra put in a similar overall timing in their recording for Tudor released in 2017, but while that was a rather turbocharged affair, taking full advantage of the Bambergers’ famously rich sonorities, this Czech Philharmonic account exudes above all a quality of love. It was recorded in January 2021 in the Dvořák Hall of Prague’s Rudolfinum, a warmly resonant acoustic almost as much a part of this work as the notes themselves, but with a focus that suits Bychkov’s approach very well.
The bardic harps of the opening number, Vyšehrad, unfold with an inevitability that is immediately involving, and Bychkov’s fastidious attention to detail draws the listener inexorably further in. In the second and most famous of the symphonic poems, Vltava, the twin sources of the great river (evoked by arabesques on a pair of flutes) are carefully etched, but without the ‘bumps’ that marred Rafael Kubelík’s Munich recording for the Orfeo label. Hunting horns, a village polka and the hair-rising ride down St John’s Rapids are all vividly realised, but it is the nocturnal water sprites that really took our breath away: the overlapping phrases of two flutes suggest nymphs who are not so much dancing (according to Smetana’s own programme notes) as held in some trance-like state. It’s one of many moments where the very special qualities of the Czech Philharmonic’s woodwind section leave their mark.
Bychkov’s steady pacing doesn’t preclude excitement: far from it, in fact, as the added space for articulatory detail proves in the thrilling outer sections of Šárka, a gripping tale of the legendary warrior maiden who leads the gruesome slaughter of Ctírad and his fellow soldiers. (The Rudolfinum acoustic makes the shocking immediacy of this tableau easier for the listener to bear!) The solo clarinet that seems to embody the eponymous heroine and her beauty in more reflective moments is another star turn. The broad sweep of the fourth poem, From Bohemia’s Woods and Fields, includes both idyllic pastoralism (the embodiment of the ‘naďve country girl’) and darker moments which hint at nature’s sometimes more unforgiving side.
Often considered the most problematic works of the cycle, the final pair of poems Tábor and Blaník are largely based on the great Hussite hymn ‘Ye who are God’s warriors’, a reference largely lost on non-Czech audiences. In Tábor, the minutely-observed accents that pepper the accompaniment to the monotone opening theme are characteristic of Bychkov’s attention to telling details. Further into the movement, when the tempo has picked up, the ‘early’ entry of the trumpet at 9’16” (like the ‘false’ horn entry in Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ and the early cymbal clash in the last movement of Janáček’s Sinfonietta) is a moment of terrific excitement. Of other recordings, only Václav Luks on Accent includes this detail, which seems to be a reading adopted by the recent Bärenreiter edition of the score, but Bychkov makes a much more convincing case for it.
It was a surprise not to hear Blaník start more or less immediately on the conclusion of Tábor: the silence between the two tracks feels a fraction too long. But this is a very minor point: the final poem in the cycle has a glorious majesty to it alongside the lovingly unfurled details. Fugato sections are marvellously pointed (the rhythms throughout the work feel perfectly sprung, as you’d expect from these players), there’s an inwardness to the more reflective passages (not just woodwind but horns and strings on great form), and the magnificent conclusion looks toward a more hopeful future. Detailed booklet notes by Czech music authority Michael Beckerman include helpful references to timing points in their description of the narrative and structure, and Smetana’s own programme notes are included. As Bychkov states, ‘Smetana’s vision shows us the way, which is what makes Má vlast so universal and so contemporary.’
Reviews
I was captivated by the recorded sound, it is so clear and luxuriously resonant ... This is an orchestra enjoying wonderful form with its chief conductor.Record Review (BBC Radio 3) 2 March 2024
For his bicentenary, the Czech Philharmonic has released a stirring recording of Smetana’s masterpiece, Má vlast (My Homeland), conducted by its chief conductor and music director, Semyon Bychkov (Pentatone). ... the victorious finale, Blaník, complete this work, superbly played with matchless understanding and character. Fiona MaddocksThe Observer 3 March 2024
The playing here is first-rate, strings impeccably rehearsed, wind tuning spot onFinancial Times
There are precious few orchestras in the world with a sound and an identity as distinctly their own as the Czech Philharmonic. The passage of time has not changed that. And, of course, that identity, that DNA, is irrevocably tied into their place in history and the world. ... It all feels so effortless and unmanufactured and in a tableau like ‘Vltava’ which is so familiar and so ‘in the air’ of our experience it sounds like it’s being composed in the playing of it. ... above all it feels authentic and that has me thinking back to the glory days of Rafael Kubelík. High praise indeed. Edward SeckersonGramophone April 2024
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