Smetana Ma Vlast

Avguygeorge, Not to hi-jack a Smetana thread, but as you brought it up......Dvorak's other symphonies are not chopped liver! I enjoy and recommend the entire nine symphonies, but especially 3, 5, 6, 8 and of course 9. The violin concerto, and his symphonic peoms are also not to be missed! And, while we are speaking of Czech, don't over look Suk, Janacek, and Kodaly, just to name a few more.

One other, underrated Ma Vlast is Macal on Telarc with the Milwaukee Symphony; I do like the others mentioned though a little better.

Agree with Newbee, there's a lot of Dvorak that's great music--many of his choral works are excellent, particularly to sing (great four-part men's sections with some nice low notes for us basses), and his concert overtures and tone poems are well worth getting for your collection. Very little that he wrote that I don't like. I'm also a big fan of Suk's music. But Newbee, I thought Kodaly was Hungarian? With a Hungarian choir director, we sing a number of his pieces.

Reprince, You're right of course, I just got carried away...I just love Eastern European music. So much life in it, unlike the more somber stuff from Germany. Just think of the Czech's I didn't include.........:-)

Kodály is Hungarian, but never mind. The same geographical area, more or less.

Newbee, could not agree more about Eastern European music, I really enjoy singing it as well as listening to it. When I visited Prague I was astonished at the number of musical events available for the listening--truly a city that loves music. The whole country seemed that way to me.