Fanfare: The Magazine for serious Record Collectors, welcomes the release of  Intimate Studies CD. Full review is available to the magazine subscribers.

…Her playing is notable for its technical refinement. Right from the start, the opening movement of In the Mist sports both a very gradual crescendo in both hands that is managed along a smooth arc, and several evenly descending runs, tossed off at a relatively slow tempo (difficult to maintain) with a panache one is used to hearing from pianists of the French School. The Chopinesque rubato in the work’s third movement flows naturally, with a pleasing sense of phrasing and great attention to color. The fourth movement has massive, cleanly articulated chords. So it goes throughout this disc: the balance of the hands in the Pastorale movement from the Suite by Haas, and the cantabile feeling that’s never lost in the motoric grotesquerie of the Postludium movement; the underplayed rhetoric that begins Suk’s Spring and the Lisztian theme that follows it, given such a warmly lyrical treatment; the deceptive ease with which the “Breeze” movement is tossed off—its barely sketched rhythm in the right hand, the left strumming an occasional chord. Immaculate playing and good musicianship are the hallmarks of this release….music receives a sympathetic understanding from the pianist, who clearly feels it down to her bones. She is especially effective in the gentler material, where her unflappable technique is joined by an intimate warmth and an ability to say things of worth that can’t be rushed. These days that is in itself a cherishable gift. With solid liner notes about the music by Vanda Prochazka and briefer remarks about the composers by Valešová herself, this is a welcome release. Let’s hope some label snaps her up to perform more solo works from her native land, and soon. Barry Brenesal

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