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Within a mere few years, Petr Popelka has established himself as one of the world’s most exciting young conductors. Serving as principal conductor of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Wiener Symphoniker, he has also appeared as a guest with prominent European and American orchestras, as well as at opera houses worldwide. Popelka does not view Bedrich Smetana’s legacy as an obligatory Czech national classic, but rather as an object of love and vital artistic quest. “His ultimate masterpiece, My Country, should be approached a bit like an opera, as a great story …. As a cycle of tone poems based on the theme of the homeland, it is absolutely unique in the history of music. Most significantly, there is not a work written with greater love.” Popelka’s recording is not just yet another addition to the immense number of recordings of My Country. Bringing to bear his great musicality and acute sense of detail, the conductor and the orchestra have modelled a truly exceptional form. Popelka’s album features other germs too. String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, “From My Life”, hailing from Smetana’s mature period, when the composer was completely deaf, in George Szell’s brilliant orchestration. In contrast, Smetana’s early music is represented by the Triumphal Symphony, dedicated to the wedding of the 24-year-old Emperor Franz Joseph I to Princess Elisabeth of Bavaria, and three “Swedish” Liszt-inspired symphonic poems, based on dramas as immense as Shakespeare’s Richard III and Schiller’s Wallenstein. The extraordinary album marks the 200th anniversary of Smetana’s birth. Lovers of spatial sound will certainly relish streaming My Country in the Dolby Atmos format. Reviews BBC Music Magazine February 2025 “Notwithstanding some rough edges, especially in their otherwise passionate rendition of Szell’s orchestration of the string quartet,t here is a good deal to enjoy in these vividly recorded performances. – 3 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 4 out of 5 stars (Recording) Gramophone Magazine February 2025 “Popelka doesn’t miss a trick: his is a sympathetic, all-embracing Má vlast, idiomatic, very well played and appropriately at one with the elements. The Guardian 23rd January 2025 “The Prague Radio Symphony’s performances of [Má Vlast], bristling with energy and vivid intent when required, rightly take pride of place in Petr Popelka’s survey of the major orchestral works…But the CD catalogue is already well furnished with outstanding versions of Má Vlast, both from other Czech orchestras and further afield, and it’s Popelka’s performances of the other works here that single this set out as thoroughly worthwhile. – 4 out of 5 stars The Times 2nd January 2025 “What is [Popelka’s] secret? Top-level musicianship, plainly. Also a total belief in the value and richness of what he conducts…The patriotic rhetoric in some of these selections has the potential to be oppressive, but Popelka’s orchestra projects such warmth and positivity that the music soars beyond the nationalistic to become a rousing celebration of life itself. – 5 out of 5 stars |
