Martinu"s Sixth, subtitled Symphonic Fantasies, was commissioned and first performed by the Boston Symphony, and has since become one of the three most popular pieces of Czech music in the composer"s homeland (along with Dvorák"s New World Symphony and Smetana"s Ma Vlast). It"s a stunning piece, full of good tunes and exotic orchestral colors (the opening sounds like a whirling cloud of insects). The Fifth Symphony has a fascinating three-part structure without any real slow movement. Its finale has an irresistible impulse based on the same rhythm as the first movement of Beethoven"s Seventh. Neumann conducts with mastery. --David Hurwitz