If Dvorak's music is in the Czech Philharmonic's blood then the sessions for this set must have coincided with corporate anaemia—energy is in very short supply. Gregor must take the blame: it's not only a question of most of the basic tempos being on the slow side (fatally so in the Slavonic Rhapsodies), but of insufficient contrast between the meditative/expansive Dvorak and passages where the spirit of the dance breaks through.
After the grandioso combination of the first Slavonic Rhapsody's two themes (at fig. K, 10'22'') the music cries out for some form of physical release, but Gregor ignores the stringendo and arrives with a jolt at a very sedate presto (bar 419, 11'48''). Similarly, in the Symphonic Variations, Gregor fails to mobilize matters at the fourth variation where the piu allegro is marked crotchet=126. What we get is crochet=86 and the piece as a whole never really gets off the ground (the gorgeous waltz of Variation 19 shuffles along limply at well below Dvorak's marking).
The Hero's Song—Dvorak's last orchestral work—is an exception. The gradual increase in pace up to the return of the Allegro con fuoco (at 15'41'') produces one of the few genuinely exciting episodes in this set. Yet, for some reason best known to himself, in the succeeding transition to the molto vivace Gregor almost halves the pace (for about 30 seconds). Instant sabotage! Tension dissipates and the build up to the final Lisztian peroration lacks Jarvi's (Chandos—part of a two-CD set) assurance and flair.
That far less destructible masterpiece, the Scherzo capriccioso works well enough at another of Gregor's leisurely tempos, and it's good to have the repeat of the Trio, but balance is awry in the final presto where the main theme in strings and woodwind is masked by the brass.'