Reviews & Acclaim for Rita Costanzi

 

Having known and worked with Rita Costanzi over the past 10 years, I can assert that she is a most accomplished harpist and intelligent musician. Ms. Costanzi is full of artistry, and she infuses character and personality in her playing, while expressing a full understanding of the music she performs so eloquently.

In addition to these musical qualities, Ms. Costanzi also has a public appeal that dynamically engages her audience in her performance.

I warmly recommend her for a brilliant solo career, which she deserves.

Sergiu Comissiona
Conductor Emeritus, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Laureate, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor

“NO NEED TO ESCAPE FROM THIS NEW WORK”

Rita Costanzi, for whom the work was written, is a soloist of impressive technique, strength and intelligence and she gives a powerful reading of this fine new work.

Christopher Dafoe
National Post
Dec. 1, 1998

“HARPIST BOWLED LISTENERS OVER”

If you weren’t completely bowled over by Rita Costanzi’s playing with the Calgary Philharmonic Wednesday at Singer Hall, then you weren’t paying attention or you weren’t there.

Too bad. Hundreds were present and in rapt concentration as this spirited musician played the music of Handel and Somers. The evening’s first surprise was the sound of Costanzi’s instrument. It’s been so long since the Philharmonic showcased a guest harpist that the dynamic and timbral range she evoked was initially fascinating in itself.

But musicianship was the real key to the player’s success. She plays Handel boldly, phrasing in an individual but always tasteful manner. We’ve all heard countless performances of this work, yet I don’t recall any other imbued with such impressive warmth and animation.

Eric Dawson
Calgary Herald
Feb. 4, 1993

“HARPIST’S PASSION, DELICACY WIN OVER AUDIENCE”

The Autumn Classics series of the Sitka Summer Music Festival got off to a fine start Friday evening at Grant Hall Auditorium. The program’s featured soloist, Rita Costanzi, impressed the audience by displaying equal parts passion and delicacy as she plucked and caressed the 47 strings of her semi-grand harp. It’s Costanzi’s skill at alternating strong and soft touches, bringing subtle nuances to the harp’s sound, which proved the most effective.

S.L. Guthrie
Anchorage Daily News
Sept. 22, 2002

Rita is not only a supremely gifted Harp soloist, she is a most charismatic performer. Her flair and powerful musical personality transmit directly to the audience and it is immediately evident that the somewhat unfamiliar medium of Classical Harp as featured soloist with Orchestra is strongly appreciated by the audience. I have also had the opportunity to see the extraordinary one woman show 'Harp and Solo' which clearly could not be successfully performed by anyone else since it requires virtuoso Harp skills, acting skills and a personality large enough to fill a stage.

Working with Rita has been a great pleasure. As conductor, I value the warm collegial relationship with her as soloist and it was at once possible to make music in a cooperative and concentrated way. What a joy !

Bruce Pullan
Music Director
Vancouver Bach Choir

“FINALLY, A GREAT ORCHESTRA TO ACCOMPANY GREAT SOLOISTS”

Another of the evening’s triumphs was Rita Costanzi’s performance of Debussy’s Danses Sacrées et Profanes for harp and strings. Costanzi... an artist of immense gifts.

Costanzi catches the changing moods of the music, sustaining notes in a way that makes them seem like slow-flowing liquid.

The joyfulness of the second movement is so palpable in Costanzi’s playing that for an instant I wanted to sound the harp myself, and feel the pull of one of those long, silken chromatic runs.

Here’s to many more solo performances by Costanzi.

Michael Scott
Vancouver Sun
Jan. 18, 1995

It gives me great pleasure to recommend harpist RITA COSTANZI. She has appeared with me recently as soloist with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and had a very great success. Ms Costanzi is, in my opinion, a most accomplished artist, possessing not only a formidable technique, but also a most engaging platform manner, which involves the audience considerably in her performance. She is a pleasure to work with both in rehearsal and concert, and I recommend her most highly.

Simon Streatfeild
Conductor Emeritus, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra
Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Advisor, Symphony Nova Scotia

Rita Costanzi - Acclaim as Composer

COSTANZI'S CONCERT BRINGS STANDING OVATION
Concert Review by Lori Pappajohn

What is it about Rita Costanzi's playing that reaches inside one? She has the ability to electrify audiences and she did just that at her solo concert Friday, October 6 at Ryerson United Church. During the concert she played Glinka's Variations on a Theme of Mozart, Toumier's Sonatine pour Harpe, Hindemith's Senate fur Harfe, Albeniz' Rumores de la Caleta Malaguena, Beethoven's Adagio from the Moonlight Sonata and Smetana's Die Moldau.

While her concert commanded a standing ovation from the audience — so did her world premiere of Know You Like Star and Storm, written by Rita herself. The piece was electrifying. It had a simplicity that built upon itself creating a tension that you could cut with a knife. The piece started with Rita strumming a dark glissando on the bass strings and then saying a poem, speaking into the back of her harp. Keeping up the hypnotic effect of the piece, which started small, grew and crescendoed into a climax and then ended in nothing, was stunning.

Rita wrote her piece this summer. "I wanted to play a Canadian piece at my Eastman concert, but nothing spoke to me about what I wanted to express," said Rita. As a child, Rita had loved improvising - and over the years she has developed a strong love for literature and poetry.

"I sat down and didn't know where to start. But as a child I'd always loved kneeling on the floor and saying tones into the echoing harp. So I spoke the text into the sound chamber."

Rita's work was based on a poem by Rilke.

"No matter what is happening and how monstrous life is, the poet's response is always that of praise," said Rita. Bravo Rita on a great concert and a great composition. If you missed this fabulous concert, you can hear it on CBC Radio Arts Tonight December 20. Rita will be busy this December recording a solo CD for CBC Records. Works by Toumier, Natra, Grandjany, Thomas and Coulthard.

B.C. HARPS NEWSLETTER
November 1995