Smetana Ma Vlast

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.

Thanks for all the responds. Currently I have 2 versions of Ma Vlast, the Supraphon with Kubelik and the Naxos with Atoni Wit.
I just purchased the mono version Phillips/Kubelik/Chicago after reading so many great thoughts about this version.
Any other Eastern European composers that we missed out?

I don't know what your taste run to or what you've heard, but here are a few that come to mind....From the romantic period: Fibich, Novak, and a BIG one, Franz Liszt. From the modern period Martinu and Rozsa. That, and the few I mentioned before will keep you busy for a while, but if you get bored, go to the Supraphon site - they are one of the primere lables for Czech (and Eastern European) music.

One Ma Vlast not yet mentioned, but which is among my favorites, is Libor Pesek's on Virgin with the Royal Liverpool Orchestra.

This is why collecting classical music is interesting. You can't just have one version. The Gramophone magazine is the only one I know of that has a special section dedicated to a major work each month. In this section, you will read an in-depth analysis of all the versions available on the market for the selected work.