Adam Golka – Press

“wonderful musicianship with humor and hijinks, along with historical context”

“The tour de force, though, was Schubert’s “Fantasy in C Major.” Here, Zorman and Golka meshed beautifully, with a connection that made the exchanging of motifs feel almost supernatural.”

“…he is not a flashy player; he is a competent, compelling, musical one, which is so much the better. Golka is a musician’s pianist, one to go out of your way to hear.”

“Earlier in the week I heard a wonderful evening of chamber music at Frankly Music, a concert held at Schwan Hall at Wisconsin Lutheran College. Frank Almond paired with pianist Adam Golka in Birds in Warped Time II by Japanese composer Somei Satoh (b. 1947), creating a meditative, impressionistic mood.”

“Earlier in the week I heard a wonderful evening of chamber music at Frankly Music, a concert held at Schwan Hall at Wisconsin Lutheran College. Frank Almond paired with pianist Adam Golka in Birds in Warped Time II by Japanese composer Somei Satoh (b. 1947), creating a meditative, impressionistic mood.”

“…the pianist had no trouble whatsoever winning over Friday’s audience at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center Theatre with an incredibly soft touch that would result in perhaps surprisingly (to some) lighthearted music… …at times, he made the playing look easier than it could possibly be.”

“Golka poetically conjured the difficult piano part with unusual sensitivity in touch.”

“Mozart’s Concerto No. 27 is by no means a showpiece, but Golka, with worthy collaboration from conductor Harth-Bedoya and the orchestra, produced a performance in which every moment gripped the audience in its sheer beauty and insight… …in this performance, the sometimes-surprising shifts of tonality Mozart provided became magical. The middle movement presented a conversation between the soloist and orchestra in which the piano spoke with lean simplicity, answered by glowing resonance in the orchestra. The mood shifted slightly again for the finale, a serenely joyful affirmation of life.”

“For last weekend’s concerts, Golka turned to Frédéric Chopin and one of the composer’s few orchestral works, the Piano Concerto in E minor. The introspection that Golka showed seven years ago had matured even further and now flowed to the surface of his performance as well thought-out, articulate phrasing. Bonuses were his delivery of crystalline tonal clarity, smile-inducing details, and a dramatic sense of dynamics. This was not an over-romanticized or muscular take on the concerto, but rather one on the cerebral—yet entertaining—side of things. Perhaps more Mozart than Beethoven, but in the best possible sense.”

“Golka’s playing was light and full of the energy of the youthful Chopin, who was 20 and in love when he wrote it. Golka’s lovely playing of the second movement ‘Romance. Larghetto,’ captured Chopin’s expressions of his devotion to the young soprano Konstancja Gladkowske.”

“Mr. Golka, whose program consisted of two huge works—Brahms’s First Piano Sonata and Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata—was something to cheer about. This was playing with dramatic flair and conviction, bold yet musical, filled with risk-taking. He threw himself into the performance with abandon, and he had the skill to pull it off.”

“Golka gave one of the best performances of the festival, ever alert to his partners’ needs and contributing greatly to a lyrical and dramatic masterpiece that was engrossing throughout.”

“Golka’s rendition was knowing, competent, and, best of all, alive to every shift of color.”

“Golka’s well-oiled fingers navigate the Beethoven’s first-movement technical provocations fluently, with amazingly even trills to boot… this excellently produced disc undoubtedly showcases Golka’s proficient capabilities.”