Roger Hecht wrote:

>James Zehm wrote:
>
>>I recently found Kubelik's live recording of Ma Vlast, played during the
>>first Prague Spring festival (the CD still says Made in Czechoslovakia).
>>I don't think it's possible to hear a better interpretation of this great
>>tone poem. ...
>
>I don't know the Kubelik performance you're talking about, but your
>comments don't surprise me.

Unless I've misread something, this is the performance Kubelik made in
1990, during his return to Czechoslovakia for the first time in over 40
years or so....obviously, a homecoming event of great emotion which seems
to have carried over into the recording.

>Kubelik also made two commercial recordings of this work.  The Boston
>Symphony one on DG is quite good, but, though praised, I have found the
>London recording with the Vienna Philharmonic very hard to listen to
>because of hard sound.  ...

Actually, there's another Kubelik performance besides these; the one he
made for Mercury with the Chicago Symphony in 1952, a few years after he
was forced to leave his native land.  Another searing performance, but
perhaps of a different nature, given the circumstances.

Bill H.