MartaGardolińska

Press

• Verdi La Traviata

  Opéra National de Paris

  Jun 2026

  • Let us first praise the absolutely remarkable work of Marta Gardolińska...she offers a discourse of great finesse, with subtle illuminations and absolutely magnificent explorations of colour, while maintaining the continuity of the musical argument and a balance of tempi — never resorting to grand sledgehammer blows to simulate dramatic intensity, never frantically accelerating to create the illusion of fate closing in, and with a perfectly judged balance between singers and orchestra. From the very prelude, her approach won over the audience through the beauty of her phrasing and the complete absence of routine. The attack of the Brindisi, for example, renounces the cheap theatrical effects heard so many times before. The energy the music produces here comes genuinely from within a musical discourse conducted with rare vigilance — all the more valuable for a title that returns constantly to the opera house repertoire. Her management of the sound planes allows, for instance, every intervention (Germont père, Alfredo) to be heard clearly in the great Act II finale.

    • Résonances Lyriques
    • 04 June 2026

  • For her Paris Opera debut, Gardolińska imposed a direction of great clarity, and found her finest moment at the end of Act II, where her remarkable mastery of the ensembles gave them impressive legibility

    • Forum Opéra
    • 06 June 2026

  • In the pit, Marta Gardolińska had an intuitive grasp of Verdi’s drama and an intuitive ear for Verdi’s rich instrumental palette... she drew much fine playing from the Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris: silvery strings during the preludes, handsomely shaped woodwind episodes and some agreeably mournful brass in the denouement.

    • Opera Today
    • 04 June 2026

• Beethoven Symphony No 4 Orquestra Sinfonica de Barcelona

  L'Auditori Barcelona

  Nov 2023 - Nov 2023

  • "Gardolińska mostró su vitalidad desde la tarima, con rápidos y elegantes gestos que la los del atril parecían seguir con gusto." "Gardolińska showed her vitality from the stage, with quick and elegant gestures that those at the lectern seemed to follow with gusto."

    • Platea Magazine
    • 13 November 2023

• Los Angeles Philharmonic

  Hollywood Bowl

  Sep 2022

  • Beethoven’s Seventh after intermission had arresting power. Gardolinska got the strings to dig in as though they were preparing for a hurricane. They had to; Gardolinska’s rhythmic impetus proved ferocious. Yet through it all, she gave definition to inner and outer lines while remaining in the thrall of Beethovenian magnificence around every corner.

    • LA Times
    • 11 September 2023

• Paderewski Manru

  Opera National de Lorraine

  May 2023

  • L'Orchestre et le Chœur de l’Opéra national de Lorraine sont placés sous la direction véhémente et précise de Marta Gardolińska. Déjà remarquée dans Der Traumgörge de Zemlinsky et Carmen à Strasbourg, la directrice musicale livre du chef d'œuvre de Paderewski une lecture puissamment engagée, capable d'en rehausser par la seule force de la musique The Opéra national de Lorraine Orchestra and Chorus are under the vehement and precise direction of Marta Gardolińska. Having already made a name for herself in Zemlinsky's Der Traumgörge and Carmen in Strasbourg, the musical director delivers a powerfully committed reading of Paderewski's masterpiece, capable of heightening its impact through the sheer force of the music.

    • Diapason Magazine
    • 15 May 2023

• Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

  Poole Lighthouse

  Mar 2022

  • On this showing she is very much an artist to be reckoned with. Both were superbly done. Gardolińska’s understanding of the balance between grace and energy in Schubert’s Third was wonderfully acute, as she propelled the first movement, with its gleeful clarinet solos, excitedly forward and brought out the nostalgic undertow of the slow Allegretto and the elan of the scherzo-cum-waltz. The tarantella finale, with its whirling, almost obsessive rhythmic figurations, was thrilling in its precision, really sweeping you away. That same exactitude and exhilaration characterised Shostakovich’s Ninth. Gardolińska’s interpretation emphasised its lurching contrasts and disarming ambiguities of mood.

    • Guardian
    • 04 March 2022

• Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

  Poole Lighthouse

  Mar 2022

  • Gardolinska bought an invigorating light touch to Schubert's symphony and an exact sense of tempo proportions, finding precisely the contrasting tempo for the swaying, bucolic middle section of the hearty third movement

    • Telegraph
    • 04 May 2022

• London Symphony Orchestra

  Brighton Festival

  May 2023

  • While heavy brass and percussion stood ready-armed as the aggressor, Gardolińska focused on the sound and presence of her strings – surely Tchaikovsky’s own voice in this drama. Gardolińska’s profoundly unsettling first movement and her disconsolate second were both applauded. The symphony conclusion was noisily greeted. The audience had seen a conductor new to them in action with an economy of flowing gesture

    • Sussex Express
    • 23 May 2023

• Zemlinsky Der Traumgorge

  Opera national de Lorraine

  Sep 2020

  • Le chef, c'est aussi I'atout maître à Nancy : la Polonaise Marta Gardolinska est une révélation, tant par son bras souple et sûr que parson don pour marier voix et instruments, avec un sens inné des couleurs sonores. The conductor is the master in Nancy: the Polish Marta Gardolinska is a revelation, as much by her flexible and sure arm as by her gift for marrying voice and instruments, with an innate sense of sound colours.

    • Le Figaro
    • 05 October 2020

• BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

  City Halls, Glasgow

  Dec 2023

  • Gardolínska harnessed all of that impressively. This performance had mischief, pathos, melting eloquence and outright joy, and a level of precision and attack to fully sustain its enjoyment. Gardolínska again elicited an appealing response from the SSO, in the concerto’s toy box opening, its rhapsodic surges and sumptuous textures.

    • VoxCarnyx
    • 14 December 2023