B E A T A G O L E C
R e v i e w s
FreeTime Magazine
Freetime Magazine, January 2011
Local Releases, World Class Talent
by Scott Gudell:
Pianist and Composer
Beata E. Golec
What attracted me to the disc by pianist and composer Ms. Beata Golec was that is wasn't simply ANOTHER play-it-safe collection of Mozart, Beethoven, and/or Brahms pieces. Ms. Golec is willing to open the disc with three short original compositions, follow it with pieces by two contemporary composers (Judith Lang Zaimont and Arvo Part) and then anchor the disc with a Mozart Sonata, thus offering just enough of a recognizable element to attract our attention.
The three originals are short pieces that dovetail nicely. The first is a dark, dissonant tone poem, the second an elusive free form piece and the third (Forests - for piano solo) seem to evoke the verdant landscape of her native
Poland. Just a few miles north are Estonia and the home of Part. His Sonatina is brisk and refreshingly airy.
The Mozart selection, though not as lyrical as it is when presented by pianists such as Murray Periaha or Vladimir Horowitz, is light and offers us just enough of the "standard" classical names that will invite us in and balance the more adventurous pieces.
Culture.pl
Cultupe.pl, August 2008
Author: Anna Iwanicka-Nijakowska
Publications of this type are still rare. This CD has been released from the assumption by the American publisher Blackdog Records, a musical showcase of one of the most talented young artists, graduates of the Academy of Music in Warsaw and Katowice , a Polish
pianist and composer Beata E. Golec. Today, her career is growing very quickly especially abroad - in the United States, where he has lived since 2003. There she completed her piano studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, has participated in numerous masterclasses, including Alicia de Larrocha and Michael Torke.
Twice, in 2005 and 2006 she won first prize in the Bradshaw and Buono American International Piano Competition. After the first victory at the competition, in May 2005 she made her debut in one of the most prestigious concert halls in the world - Carnegie Hall in
New York to appear there again in subsequent years.
This CD is not the first record by the artist. Already in 2002, in cooperation with the Katowice Academy of Music, she released her debut
album, entitled Debut de Siecle, and in 2005 a documentary about her was made by the Rochester Institute of Technology. This latest CD presents both her compositions and the art of piano.
Golec- composer creates music simple and direct in terms of expressed emotion, showing the influence of repetitive techniques. Her compositions are easily distinguished in perception, light and sound figurative language. The mission of the artist, as it shows itself, is to give students an incentive to open up the music of their "mental space" and allowing them to release their imagination.
We get to know Golec- pianist through the prism of works by Judith Lang Zaimont, Arvo Pärt, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and her own. Selected compositions show an excellent interpreter of the works of both classic and contemporary - from romanticising Calendar Collection of American composer Judith Lang Zaimont, Sonatina by Estonian minimalist Arvo Pärt, to the impressionistic and jazzy compositions by Beata Golec.