Post Description

The six movements that make up Smetana’s gloriously chauvinistic hymn to the Czech nation were first performed in what is now the Smetana Concert Hall in Prague in 1882. There are now annual performances in the Smetana Hall and 'Má Vlast' is regularly performed as the opening concert of the Prague Spring Festival.

It was therefore something more than a surprise when the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis were invited to give the opening concert of the Prague Spring in 2005 and the piece they were asked to play was ‘Má Vlast’. This could have been seen as a rather impertinent example of taking coals to Newcastle, but Sir Colin and the LSO are never ones to duck a challenge and the performance was a huge success. 

Many members of the Czech Philharmonic were in the audience and after the performance – with extraordinary generosity – they congratulated their London colleagues and Sir Colin on bringing a fresh perspective to Smetana’s iconic work. After opening the Prague Spring the LSO gave two further performances of ‘Má Vlast’ at the Barbican and it is from these performances that the present recording is taken. The Czechs were ecstatic about LSO’s reading of Smetana’s masterpiece. We hope you are too.