Work: Má vlast (My Fatherland)

An outstanding account of Smetana's Ma vlást in Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie was prefaced by Straussian oboe nostalgia courtesy of Albrecht Mayer. 

The effervescent conductor took six little-known Czech works into another ether: one in which the footprints are invisible.

Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Pinchas Steinberg, gives a performance of perhaps the most famous of Bedrich Smetana’s works, a romantic tribute to his motherland, Má vlast.

Big names brought a big sound but not much else to the traditional performance of Smetana's Má vlast.

The Pittsburgh Symphony under Jiři Bělohlávek gave a rare performance of Smetana's complete cycle of tone poems.