[My Youth] is one of the first things he wrote after moving to Vienna in 1903. It is filled with vigorous, confidant themes and is very well written. The orchestra plays well in all three works…the disc is certainly worth having at Naxos’s bargain price.

Excellent stuff for admirers of the Czech muse. The Symphony is the work by which Foerster is perhaps best known. The slow movement is a glorious one and here Friedel really expands and wrings every drop of emotion. The orchestral balance here is especially judicious.

Friedel has the measure of the piece [Symphony No. 4] and projects its gentle loveliness just as effectively. Also, the vivid engineering gives the organ-reinforced conclusion plenty of the necessary gravitas, and at the Naxos price you can hardly go wrong. This is well-made, attractive music that fans of late-Romanticism should certainly hear.

Friedel continues to impress as he did in MSR Classics’ recent collection of tone poems and the Aladdin Suite of Carl Nielsen. …Naxos may be proud of its talent-scouting, leaving us anxious for more. Congratulations all around.