"I am a great fan of Dvorák´s music, because it always seemed to me that apart from Mozart Dvorák is the greatest composer... He wrote symphonies, he wrote tone poems, he wrote operas, he wrote chamber music, he wrote songs, he wrote religious music, everything... He´s just the greatest composer, except for Mozart perhaps." Sir Charles Mackerras not only loved Dvorák and Czech music. As a globally renowned "non-Czech" conductor, he rendered it a great service. Among the numerous splendid recordings of Antonín Dvorák's mature symphonic works, those made by Mackerras are the most fitting for a vinyl release: technically impeccable, they feature so authentic a "Czech" sound and spirit as to make many a Dvorák compatriot envious... The album serves to prove how much young Mackerras learned in Prague from his teacher, Maestro Václav Talich. Sir Charles's accounts of Symphonies Nos 8 and 9 are torrentially vivid, as performed by the superb Prague Symphony Orchestra under his baton. The selected Slavonic Dances and Legends (Cannes Classical Award 2003) breathe with nobleness and fervor, the quintessential attributes of the Czech Philharmonic.