Smetana: Ma Vlast

"Best of the non-Czech Ma vicars, by some considerable distance, is Paavo Berglund's 1978 Staatskapelle Dresden recording for EMI. Berglund's greatest virtue (and he has many) is his attentiveness to the score, whether avoiding "traditional" ritardandos (as at bar 119 in "Vykhrad"), observing expressive markings (the espressivo dolente clarinet in the same piece) or honouring Smetana's repeated requests for L'istesso tempo (where a new rhythm is to be played at the same basic pace, or beat, as in the preceding passage). Note too, the telling piccolo in Vltava's Rapids - absolutely essential if the pia moto passage thereafter is to make any musical sense - and the staccato strings in "Blanik". EMI's recording is comfortably close and unusually revealing of detail."
(Gramophone comparing all the different recordings)