With the exception of two unfinished scores, a violin concerto and a symphony about the Danube, this disc collects together all the independent orchestral works of Janáček's maturity. Both the Sinfonietta and Taras Bulba, the rhapsody based upon Gogol's novella, have been regularly recorded, and these performances of them under Tomáš Netopil don't really measure up to the best of the existing versions; the Prague Radio Symphony is a competent enough ensemble but no match in precision or tonal splendour for the great orchestras that have tackled those works. Competition is less fierce in the smaller-scale ballad The Fiddler's Child, completed in 1913, and the symphonic poem The Ballad of Blaník, finished six years later. In both, conductor and orchestra give far better accounts of themselves: Netopil shows that he is a subtle and meticulous Janáček interpreter, while the Prague players prove they can produce playing of real delicacy and tonal refinement.