Concert Reviews

Through Many Centuries at St. Mary's
by Paul D. Williams
To many people, the thought of baroque music instruments evokes visions of fusty old parlors with great hoop skirts, pinched waists, and powdered wigs. Had these people joined the audience for the latest edition of the Smedes Parlor Concert Series of Saint Mary's School, they would have been in for an education. There Rebecca Troxler, baroque flute, Geoffrey Burgess, baroque oboe, Stephanie Vial, baroque cello, and Elaine Funaro, harpsichord, trekked through some six centuries worth of musical offerings. Known as the Aliénor Ensemble, these superb artists brilliantly demonstrated the versatility of that class of instruments with the program entitled "Airs and Dances Through the Centuries." « Read the rest of this review »

Classy End for Theater Chamber Players
Monday, February 23, 2004; Page C04
The Theater Chamber Players ended their collective existence last weekend in the style they have made familiar for more than three decades. Their farewell concert Saturday night in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater (not described as such and not marked by tearful or nostalgic speeches) offered their usual combination of old music sensitively played and 20th-century music from the cutting edge. The focus was, as usual, on music you seldom hear. « Read the rest of this review »

Thoroughly Modern Harpsichord
by Jeffrey Rossman
Summertime chamber music at Duke University is a nice change of pace from the concerts given during the standard academic year. Everything is a little less formal, ticket prices are a bit lower, and the performers present an eclectic mix of works. One of the loveliest additions to the several concert venues on the Duke campus is the Doris Duke Center, located in the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. « Read the rest of this review »

Harpsichord and More
by Marvin J. Ward
Elaine Funaro's May 29 "Nod to the 90's" program, the first offering in Duke's 2003 Summer Festival of Music, held in Kirby-Horton Hall in the Sarah P. Duke Memorial Gardens, gave the overflow crowd a great deal more than just the fine playing by one of the area's – and, arguably, the nation's – best harpsichordists performing today, that we have become accustomed to. « Read the rest of this review »

"Funaro's brilliant and moving performances of new music prove that after five hundred years, the harpsichord can still inspire amazing creativity"
Laurence Libin, curator of instruments, Metropolitan Museum of Art

"Funaro clearly showed her affinity for [this contemporary] music, including its technical demands and often quirky writing."
Boston Early Music News

"The musicianship on the part of the performer was nothing less than extraordinary; her promotion of women's music and of indigenous musical forms is refreshing."
Old Gold and Black

"This performance (of the Brandenburg Concerto V) was the debut of a new maturity, a ripe warm emotional understanding that elevates Funaro to a limited group of exceptionally fine players."
Spectator Magazine

"Funaro had all the breathless speed and precision needed to make the most of these complicated tunes and their endless tremolos."
Durham Morning Herald

"Funaro rose well above the technical and musical requirements in a stellar performance. The second movement, Affettuoso, was beautifully interpreted in exquisite interplay and delicate line by the soli trio."
Cue Magazine