Czech Philharmonic, Jiří Bělohlávek - Antonín Dvořák - Slavonic Dances, Opp. 46 & 72 (2016) CD-Rip

Classical music listeners resort to ethnic and national generalizations too often. Some of the most insightful Beethoven interpreters were French, and there are plenty of classic non-Czech recordings of Dvorák. Yet there's something uniquely satisfying about this version of the much-recorded Slavonic Dances (both sets, Op. 46 and Op. 72), and the satisfaction has something to do with the all-Czech origins. Take for example the match between the superb sound, recorded in Prague's Rudolfinium hall, and the texture of Jirí Belohlávek's Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, an ensemble he has molded into his own. The orchestra doesn't produce a Vienna Philharmonic-like sheen, but rather a slightly gutsier sound that is reproduced to the hilt by Decca's engineers in this recording. Listen to this, and you'll be reminded of the Czech Philharmonic's glory days in the 1960s and 1970s, when it was one of the few institutions in the country not under grim Soviet control. Belohlávek thinks each of these dances through. He delivers crisp readings of the basic exposition of the dance rhythms, but the real fun comes as he develops the material. Each of these dances is like a little ternary symphonic movement, and that's the way the work should be done. Sample the Slavonic Dance in F major, Op. 46, No. 4, where the minuet theme evolves into a sensitive study of register. Belohlávek will get your foot tapping in pieces like the Slavonic Dance in G minor, Op. 46, No. 8, which with its mode mixture is almost a little study for the Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88, to come. But it's in the small details that he and the musicians really shine. A superior Dvorák recording.