Texas Christian Univeristy
School of Music

presents

THE THIRTY-TWO PIANO SONATAS OF BEETHOVEN

Performed in Chronological Order

 Part Two
(presented Fall 2006)

Concert V: "Summer in Heiligenstadt: Increasing Deafness and Personal Crisis"
Three Sonatas op. 31 (1802) ***including the "Tempest" Sonata
Sunday, September 3rd, 2006 at 2:30 p.m. -- Ed Landreth Auditorium

Concert VI: "Beethoven and the Heroic Ideal"
Two Sonatas op. 49 (1795-1797, published 1805)
Sonata op. 53 "Waldstein" (1804)
Sonata op. 54 (1804)
Sonata op. 57 "Appasionata" (1805)
Sunday, September 24th, 2006 at 2:30 p.m. -- Ed Landreth Auditorium

Concert VII: "A Last Attempt at Love"
Sonata op. 78 (1809)
Sonata op. 79 (1809)
Sonata op. 81a "Les Adieux" ("The Farewell") (1810)
Sonata op. 90 (1814)
Sonata op. 101 (1816)
Sunday, October 15th, 2006 at 2:30 p.m. -- Ed Landreth Auditorium

Concert VIII: "The End of the Beginning and the Beginning of the End"
Sonata op. 106 "Hammerklavier" (1818)
Grosse Fuge ("Great Fugue"), op. 134, for one piano, four hands
with José Feghali, piano
Sunday, November 12th, 2006 at 2:30 p.m. -- Ed Landreth Auditorium

Concert IX: "Ascending into the Unknown: A Musical Transfiguration"
Sonata op. 109 (1820)
Sonata op. 110 (1822)
Sonata op. 111 (1822)
Sunday, December 10th, 2006 at 2:30 p.m. -- Ed Landreth Auditorium

All Part Two concerts are on Sundays at 2:30 p.m in Ed Landreth Auditorium. Admission is free.

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Part One
(presented Spring 2006)

Concert I: “Youthful Respect for and Rebellion against Haydn”
Three Sonatas op. 2 (1795)
Sunday, March 19th, 2006 at 2:30 p.m.

Concert II: “In Search of Individuality”                     
Sonata op. 7 (1797)
Three Sonatas op. 10 (1795-98)
Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 at 7:30 p.m.

Concert III: “Beethoven the Celebrity”
Sonata op. 13 “Pathetique” (1798)
Two Sonatas op. 14 (1798-99)
Sonata op. 22 (1800)
Tuesday, May 9th, 2006 at 7:30 p.m.

Concert IV: “Redefining the Sonata”
Sonata op. 26 (1801)
Two Sonatas “quasi fantasia” op. 27 (1801) ***including the “Moonlight” Sonata
Sonata op. 28 “Pastoral” (1801)
Wednesday, May 31st, 2006 at 7:30 p.m.

Click here to view the Part One brochure (jpg)

Click here to download Part One brochure (pdf)

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All the concerts will take place in Ed Landreth Auditorium, Texas Christian University.
Admission is free.

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Performing the 32 Sonatas of Beethoven in nine concerts, from March to December 2006, 18-year-old American pianist Adam Golka will share his personal insight and analyze Beethoven’s personality as projected by his Piano Sonatas.

The epic journey of Beethoven - from a miserable childhood to years of triumph, and from the tragedy of total deafness to sublime musical transfiguration - defies human understanding. Throughout his life the piano sonata was his constant companion, spanning 27 years of creativity, from Opus 2, composed in 1795, to Opus 111, written in 1822. These 32 sonatas give us the most unguarded picture of the creative genius of Beethoven.

Golka also plans to analyze Beethoven’s compositional processes and the unmatched influence the piano sonatas have had on succeeding generations.     

Since winning the Shanghai International Piano Competition and receiving the Bayard H. Friedman Outstanding Student Award in 2003, Adam Golka has been making a name for himself as a new and exciting presence on concert stages around the world. With nearly 150 performances under his belt (including with the Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, and San Diego symphonies), Adam is a recent graduate of TCU’s Artist Diploma Program, where he studied under Cliburn-winner José Feghali. Visit www.adamgolka.com for more on Adam.

Please send a blank e-mail to Beethoven@adamgolka.com to join the mailing list.

The Artist

Adam Golka, It is the mission of 18 year-old pianist Adam Golka to "rekindle a fire that seems almost burned out: the passion and excitement for live classical music, both in those who know it and in those who don’t."

"Ideally," Golka claims, "people will one day completely drop the word ‘classical’ from their musical vocabulary. Music will just be music. After all, Mozart’s music has about as much in common with Arnold Schönberg’s music as it does with the band Radiohead’s songs! If anything, Radiohead and Mozart have a lot more in common."

Golka plays thirty works for piano and orchestra, and has a vast and diverse solo repertoire. He possesses a particular interest in piano transcriptions and composes and performs his own, following in the tradition of the great keyboard masters. Golka also enjoys performing forgotten masterpieces, particularly those of Russian romantic composer Nicolai Medtner. Playing chamber music is another intense musical love.

He delights in talking to the audience in his concerts because he believes that musicians should not limit their tools for public communication. "In general, I think popular musicians can learn from classical musicians about how to enhance the emotional and intellectual depth of their music," says Golka. "Likewise, classical musicians can learn from pop musicians how to really engage and entertain an audience."

Golka has nearly 150 performances under his belt, including fabulously reviewed concerto performances with such exceptional orchestras as the Houston, Dallas, San Diego, and Fort Worth Symphonies, the Shanghai Philharmonic, and Sinfonia Varsovia. His performances have taken him to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, National Philharmonic in Warsaw, Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara, Shanghai Grand Theater, Wortham and Hobby Centers and Jones Hall in Houston, Meyerson Center in Dallas, Bass Hall in Fort Worth, and the Lincoln Center’s new Allen Room in New York, where Golka performed next to Kathleen Battle and Wynton Marsalis for an audience including celebrities like Sally Field, Naomi Judd, Ralph Nader, Itzhak Perlman and Elie Wiesel.

He was also part of the International Program at the Music@Menlo Festival in California, where he performed several concerts. Additionally, Golka has received top prizes in several American piano competitions.

Golka’s international career began at age 16, when he won the gold medal at the 2nd China Shanghai International Piano Competition. He also received the audience favorite award after his final-round performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto.

A 1st generation American, Golka owes his unique background to his parents, Polish musicians who fled Communist-controlled Poland in the 1980’s in search of a better life. His general and musical educations have been unorthodox. He attended public school in Katy, Texas, until the middle of his eighth grade year ("an eight-grade dropout!" he laughs), and continued afterward with home-schooling.

By 15, he was on his own, moving to Fort Worth, Texas (a.k.a. "Piano Town, U.S.A."), to study in the Artist Diploma Program at Texas Christian University. Many of his classmates were literally twice his age. In spring 2005, he completed his studies there under the guidance of renowned Brazilian pianist Josè Feghali, whom Golka still considers his most important mentor. His other main teachers were Dariusz Pawlas and his mother, Anna Golka.

For more information, visit www.adamgolka.com.

For information, contact the TCU School of Music (817) 257-6606 or

music@tcu.edu

see Calendar of events for a current listing of concerts and scheduled events

3/1/06