Romola Costantino
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Romola Helen Louise Costantino, Mrs Enyi (14 September 1930November 1988) was a noted Australian pianist,
accompanist Accompaniment is the musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in different genres and styles of ...
and teacher, who also worked as a music, film and theatre critic.


Biography

Costantino was the daughter of Napoleone Costantino (1889–1982), an Italian civil servant in Australia, and his
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
-born wife, Rosamond Lindner (1898-1963). She studied at the NSW Conservatorium of Music under Alexander Sverjensky. She was a graduate of the
Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including performanc ...
in London, where her graduation performance was the ''
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini The ''Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini'', Op. 43, (russian: Рапсодия на тему Паганини, ''Rapsodiya na temu Paganini'') is a concertante work written by Sergei Rachmaninoff for piano and orchestra, closely resembling a piano ...
'' by
Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...
. She gave many broadcasts and recitals for the ABC, most notably as an accompanist for musicians such as
Ruggiero Ricci Ruggiero Ricci (24 July 1918 – 5 August 2012) was an American violinist known for performances and recordings of the works of Paganini. Biography He was born in San Bruno, California, the son of Italian immigrants who first named him Woodrow ...
and
Henryk Szeryng Henryk Szeryng (usually pronounced ''HEN-r-ik SHEH-r-in-g'') (22 September 19183 March 1988) was a Polish violinist. Early years He was born in Warsaw, Poland on 22 September 1918 into a wealthy Jewish family. The surname "Szeryng" is a Poli ...
(on his 4th and last Australian tour in 1984). Costantino gave the first solo piano recital in the Sydney Opera House (10 April 1973 to an invited audience). She also participated in the first public performance in the Opera House's Music Room (with the Carl Pini Quartet and Walter Sutcliffe, under the auspices of
Musica Viva Australia Musica Viva was founded in 1945 by Romanian-born violinist Richard Goldner, with the aim of bringing chamber music to Australia. The co-founder was a German-born musicologist, Walter Dullo. At its inception, Musica Viva was a string ensemble per ...
). She also formed a well known piano duo with Lance Dossor. She was a member of the inaugural committee of the Accompanists' Guild of South Australia in 1983, and was President of the Guild from 1984 to 1986. She recorded
Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
's
Arpeggione Sonata The Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in A minor, D. 821, was written by Franz Schubert in Vienna in November 1824. The sonata is the only substantial composition for the arpeggione (which was essentially a bowed guitar) extant today. The sonata wa ...
with
Robert Pikler Robert Pikler OBE (24 January 190916 January 1984) was a Hungarian-Australian violinist, violist and teacher. Biography Pikler received his musical training in his native Budapest, first under Eugene Ormandy, then at the Franz Liszt Academy of ...
, viola, and Mozart's
Kegelstatt Trio The ''Kegelstatt Trio'', K. 498, is a piano trio for clarinet, viola and piano in E-flat major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. History Mozart wrote the piano trio on 10 sheets (19 pages) in Vienna and dated the manuscript on 5 August 1786. Accordi ...
with Pikler and Pamela Johnson, clarinet. She also recorded two Schubert piano sonatas that had been left unfinished by Schubert and completed by
Walter Dullo Walter Andreas Dullo (26 November 1902 – 22 August 1978) was a German musicologist and lawyer who migrated to Australia, where he became best known as a chocolate maker. He also continued his musical activities there, and was a co-founder of bo ...
. Other recordings include
Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...
's '' La valse'', and pieces by
Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
and Fauré., as well as a
Telemann Georg Philipp Telemann (; – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hilde ...
trio sonata for the (long-defunct) AWA record label in which she played the clavichord. She was a senior lecturer at the
University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...
. She was also a music critic for the '' Sydney Morning Herald''. and a film and theatre critic for the Sun-Herald.


Personal life

In 1971, Romola Costantino married George Enyi, an artist and sculptor, and sometimes used her married name Romola Enyi. She was musical consultant for the film ''
Between Wars ''Between Wars'' is an Australian 1974 drama/war film released on 15 November 1974. It was directed by Michael Thornhill and written by Frank Moorhouse. Plot Four episodes in the life of doctor Edward Trenbow: *In 1918 Trenbow is treating shell ...
'' (1974).


Honours

In the New Year's Day Honours of 1978, she was appointed an Officer of the
Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
for her services to the arts.


Death

Romola Costantino died in 1988 in Adelaide, South Australia, aged 58, from cancer. Many of her programs and other papers are held at the
National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Costantino, Romola 1930 births 1988 deaths 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century women pianists Australian accompanists Australian classical pianists Australian film critics Australian music critics Australian music educators Australian theatre critics Australian women educators Australian women pianists Australian women music critics Classical accompanists Piano pedagogues Women film critics Women music educators Women theatre critics Sydney Conservatorium of Music alumni Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire Deaths from cancer in South Australia