Janacek intimate letters with Lada Valesova on Spotify

Lada Valesovà was an unknown name to me, but came my way via this tweet. That Dumka recording is not on spottily yet (hèllo Avie…!), but it made me listen to the cd below, called Intimate Letters.  Lada studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London, where she now lectures. In the past she won the admiration of artists like Georg Solti and Mstislav Rostropovich and performed @ Wigmore hall in London.
The first item from the Janáček „in the mist cycle” passed by with a gentle nod, but the second and third caught my attention. Active, crisp phrasing and a clear feeling for the idiom of this music. Second Janáček cycle on the recording is the posthumus „Intimate studies”, a collection of short pieces ranging from 1876 till 1928.

The remainder of the recording is filled by works of other Tsjech composers; the tragically short lives Pavel Haas (classy suite), Bohuslav Martinu (short hommages to popular culture) and the son-in-law of Antonin Dvorak, Josef Suk (hyper-romantic in the cycle „spring”), all played with panache and guts.

Hope you will enjoy this recording as well!

Leoš Janáček (1854 – 1928)
-In the Mist, piano cycle in four movements (1911/1912)
-Intimate Studies (1876/1928)
Pavel Haas (1899 – 1944)
-Suite for Piano Op. 13 (1935)
-Allegro moderato (1938)
Bohuslav Martinů (1890 – 1959)
-Film en Miniature H.148 (1925)
-Spring (1921)
Josef Suk (1874 – 1935)
-Spring, piano cycle in five movements (1902)

Lada Valešová - Piano



http://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/3dHYar6ffD2MfnHrcU6c09 (HTTP link)