A
reserved and very discreet man, precise and scrupulous, a conscious and
meticulous musician and conductor, a well-known scholar for his attention and
philological attitude, for his enormous knowledge, often overwhelming, deep, as
the result of many years devoted to the Baroque repertoire and the analysis of
scores and texts, Alan Curtis passed away in Florence on July 15th 2015,
unexpectedly, a shock for his family and friends.
Born on
November 17th 1934, driven by his passion, determination, abnegation, his life
was entirely dedicated to music and to the rediscovery of the original musical
practice.
Having for years divided his time between Berkeley (California),
where he played and conducted concerts and operas, Alan Curtis spent his last
years performing principally dramatic music from Monteverdi to Mozart. An article on him in «Orpheus» (Berlin) was titled « The avant-gardist
of early music ». In fact, already as a young student in the '50s, he was
the first modern harpsichordist to confront the problems of Louis Couperin's
unmeasured preludes for harpsichord. Shortly thereafter, he became a pioneer in
the return to original instruments and Baroque performance practises in early
operas. In collaboration with Shirley Wynne, he was the first to revive a
Rameau opera with period instruments and authentic choreography. His radically
new ‘reconstruction’ of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione
di Poppea, first heard in Berkeley in the '60s, marked the first time in
three centuries that a late dramatic work of Monteverdi was performed as
intended by the composer, i.e. without the modern orchestration still often
mistakenly thought to be "necessary". He commissioned both the first
authentic chitarrone (Warnock) and the first chromatic (split-key) harpsichord
(Dowd) to be built in modern times, and taught his singers to follow the tuning
systems of the period (with pure major thirds). Poppea was then mounted with
great success in Amsterdam, Brussels, Spoleto, Innsbruck and Venice (where it
was nationally televised from La Fenice, and recorded by Fonit Cetra). A landmark
performance of Händel’s Admeto in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw
(recorded by EMI and then, thirty years later, reissued on CD by Virgin
Classics), was hailed as the first successful attempt to revive Händel's opera
orchestra, including the now widely-accepted but then unheard-of use of the
archlute. Other prize-winning recordings included Stradella's Susanna,
Cavalli's L’Erismena, and Bach's Goldberg variations (reissued on CD by EMI),
French and English suites (Teldec CD), and about thirty other harpsichord
discs. He has always been in the forefront of the movement to enlarge and
revivify the static operatic repertory. A lavishly authentic revival of Landi's
Il Sant'Alessio in Rome and Innsbruck in 1981 was an unexpected and stunning
success, as were three different productions of the first Jommelli revival in
modern times: La schiava liberata (Amsterdam, Naples, and Berkeley). Other
remarkably successful ‘philological recoveries’ have included Cesti’s Il Tito, his Semiramide, and Händel’s Rodrigo, which Curtis conducted in
Innsbruck, Madeira and Lisbon in 1984 for the first time since Handel himself
presented it to the Medici in 1707. Francesco Sacrati’s La finta pazza, was given its first
revival in three centuries in a specially-constructed Baroque theatre in Campo Pisani, Venice in a
production by La Fenice in July, 1987. Among better-known but nonetheless
unjustly neglected repertory, he has been a particular champion of Gluck’s Armide, of which he has led three very
different productions, including one with his own orchestra of period
instruments at the Theatre Musical de Paris (Chatelet). He was also responsible
for four different productions of Händel’s
Ariodante (La Scala '81 and '82 with
Pier Luigi Pizzi, Innsbruck '82, Wexford '85, Spoleto Italy 2007 with John
Pascoe), and the first modern revival of Vivaldi’s Il Giustino, at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, later taken to
Versailles, Venice, Milan, Buenos Aires, Houston and Ludwigshafen. With a
different cast, he performed it again in Solothurn in 2000 and Rotterdam, De
Doelen in 2001, where it was recorded for Virgin. He conducted the Portughese
premieres, in Lisbon, of Händel’s Fernando
(the original version, set in Portugal, of Sosarme), Monteverdi’s Il ritorno di Ulisse and Mozart’s Il re pastore, the latter staged and
designed by Pier Luigi Pizzi. His new performing edition of Monteverdi's Il ritorno di Ulisse, first performed in
Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, then staged in Siena in '91 and released the
following year as a Nuova Era CD and revived in '93 for the Festival of
Dresden, was published by Novello (2002) and staged for the Oslo Chamber Music
Festival in 2006. For La Fenice, shortly before it burned, he conducted the
first performances since the 18th century of Buovo d’Antona (designed by Pier
Luigi Pizzi), Goldoni’s opera buffa set to music by Traetta, later issued on CD
by Opus 111. His madrigal group was invited by Werner Herzog to be in his 1996
documentary film on Gesualdo. The CDs of madrigals by Michelangelo Rossi,
Antonio Lotti, and the complete duets of Monteverdi on Virgin Classics
(Diapason d'or 1999) have been well received by the international press, as
have their subsequent recordings of two 17th-century dramatic oratorios: Il
Sansone by Benedetto Ferrari (Diapason d'or 2000) and Assalonne punito by P.A. Ziani (Choc de la Musique). In
the summer of 2000, he conducted a new production of Radamisto for the Halle Händel
festival and, for the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Händel's superb but practically
unknown opera Arminio, which has appeared to international acclaim on CD for
Virgin. The Handel Society of London voted it best Händel recording of the year 2001.
In 2002 he conducted Händel’s Giulio
Cesare in Monte Carlo, Deidamia
in Siena (recorded by Virgin and awarded both the Preis der deutschen
Schallplattenkritik as best opera CD of 2003 and the 2004 International Händel
recording Prize), and a program of Händel arias called "La Maga
Abbandonata" for the Resonanzen Festival in Vienna (Grosse Saal, Konzerthaus),
subsequently a best-selling CD for BMG Classics, who also released the opera
Lotario.More recently he and Il Complesso
Barocco have recorded Händel’s operatic duets (“Amor e gelosia”) with
Patrizia Ciofi and Joyce DiDonato, as well as his operas Radamisto and Fernando, and a masterpiece by the Viennese court
composer Francesco Conti, the oratorio David
(Virgin Classics). The list of
highly-acclaimed Händel opera performances and recordings continues with Rodelinda, Floridante, Tolomeo, Ezio, Berenice,
Giove in Argo, Giulio Cesare, Alcina and Ariodante, the last two with Joyce
DiDonato in the title roles. Using a brilliant reconstruction by Alessandro
Ciccolini of the missing parts to Vivaldi’s newly rediscovered Motezuma, “Il Complesso Barocco” also
made the first recording (DGG Archiv) as well as staged performances in Lisbon,
Wiesbaden, Bilbao and Italy (available in DVD from Dynamic). In 2006 the same team produced the first
modern reprise of Vivaldi’s Ercole su’l Termodonte, designed and staged by John
Pascoe for the Spoleto Festival – the DVD of which won DVD of the year in 2007.
For the 50th anniversary of this festival in 2007 Alan Curtis was also invited
to conduct a new production by Handel’s Ariodante again designed and staged by
John Pascoe (both productions also available in DVD from Dynamic). Other new
recordings with Alan Curtis conducting Il Complesso Barocco include Haydn
operatic arias and overtures with Anna Bonitatibus, Porpora operatic arias and
symphonies with Karina Gauvin, Händel
arias for Carestini with Vesselina Kasarova, and “Hidden Händel” with Ann Hallenberg, a collection of
little-known but superb arias, some of them still unpublished. An unusual recent project was a Händel
Bestiary, a collaboration with his dear friend, the celebrated novelist Donna
Leon. Already a best-seller in German-speaking countries, under the title Tiere
und Töne, editions have sold out and been produced in other languages, all with
illustrations by Michael Sowa which accompany twelve arias by Händel, about
twelve, different animals, recorded for the occasion by his ensemble ‘Il
Complesso Barocco’ and four soloists brought out in 2011. It is a book of
essays accompanied by a CD of twelve arias by
Händel about twelve different animals, recorded for the occasion by Il
Complesso Barocco and four soloists, all described, including legends from
Medieval bestiaries, in Leon’s text, with accompanying illustrations by Michael
Sowa. Other CDs issued in 2011 include Händel’s Ariodante with Joyce DiDonato,
Gluck’s Ezio with Ann Hallenberg, Sonia Prina, Topi Lehtipuu and Max Cencic,
“Streams of Pleasure” (arias and duets from Handel’s oratorios) sung by Marie
Nicole Lemieux and Karina Gauvin, Domenico Scarlatti’s Tolomeo e Alessandro, as
well as a DVD of Vivaldi’s Motezuma. More recent productions include Vivaldi’s
Catone in Utica (Naive) and Drama Queens with Joyce DiDonato. In 2013 Alan
Curtis started a collaboration with the famous music publisher Boosey &
Hawkes for a series of editions of music that Il Complesso Barocco has
performed.
He is survived by his partner of the last 25
years - the lutenist Pier Luigi Ciapparelli;
his ex-wife Jennifer Curtis of
Berkeley, California; his adored and talented daughters, Julia Curtis,
and Daria Wrubel of Berkeley, California; and his beloved grandchildren
Cornelia Curtis (3 years old) and Zachary Wrubel (8 years old).
EARLY FRIENDSHIPS His 1956 - 58 Fulbright
Awards brought him to Amsterdam, where his harpsichord studies with Gustav
Leonhardt forged a lasting friendship, united as they were by a similar vision
and love for all the related arts. Alan Curtis's time there, with both
Leonhardt and Nicholas Harnoncourt, as well as the harpsichord maker Martin
Skowroneck, brought added depth to the years he worked at his doctoral degree.
This led inevitably to his being at the forefront of the revival in
presentation of (in his words) “pre-romantic music”. BEING THE FIRST Alan Curtis was the ‘first’
in so many areas that it is almost impossible to list them or to believe that
one man could have that degree of vision.
He wanted (again using his own terminology) ‘to be radically authentic’
in giving new life to what is generally considered to be ‘ancient music’ and it
was this spirit of radicalism, that led him to be the first in reconceiving the
treatment of many fields, that are now accepted as being standard musical practice.
Among them Alan Curtis was the first modern harpsichordist to unlock the
mysteries of the Louis Couperin unmeasured preludes, (it should be noted that
he did this when still a graduate student working toward a Masters Degree in
Musicology). He was the first to
commission both the split-key enharmonic harpsichord from Dowd and the first
contemporary authentic Chittarone from Warnock and was also the first to
re-introduce the 18th century practice of using the Arch lute in recitative for
Handel Opera - with Admeto in ‘79. He
was the first to revive a Rameau opera with period instruments and authentic
choreography (by Professor Shirley Wynne,) the first to present Monteverdi's
L'incoronazione di Poppea, as intended by the composer in his orchestration of
the period of composition. He had presented and performed this first in
Berkeley in the early ‘60’s, which was so successful that it was then performed
in Amsterdam, Brussels, Spoleto, Innsbruck and Venice, where it was nationally
televised from La Fenice, and then recorded by Fonit Cetra. It is now widely
accepted as being the ‘gold standard’ for reconstruction and revivals of
‘period operas’.
NOTABLE PHILOLOGOCAL RECOVERIES
Other remarkably successful ‘reconstructions’
have included Cesti's Il Tito, his Semiramide, and Händel 's Rodrigo, which
Curtis conducted in Innsbruck, Madeira and Lisbon in 1984 for the first time
since Händel himself presented it to the Medici in 1707. He also reprised this masterpiece in Siena in
1997. Among better-known but nonetheless unjustly neglected repertoire, he was
considered a champion of Gluck's Armide, of which he has led three very
different productions, including one with his own orchestra of period
instruments at the Theatre Musical de Paris (Chatelet) and for four different
productions of Händel's Ariodante (La Scala '81 and '82, with Pier Luigi Pizzi,
Innsbruck '82, Wexford '85, and lastly in Spoleto - Italy 2007).
Among the vast array of awards and prizes he
has received, apart from virtually limitless awards such as “CD of the month”, “CD of the year”, etc, it is impossible not to note that in 2002 TWO
of his recordings: Händel's Giulio Cesare
(performed in Monte Carlo) and Deidamia
(performed in Siena) and both recorded by Virgin, were each awarded the “Preis
der deutschen Schallplattenkritik” as “Best opera CD of 2003” and the “2004
International Händel recording Prize”. When in 2006 he created the first modern
reprise of Vivaldi’s Ercole su’l Termodonte, with John Pascoe for the Spoleto
Festival – Italy, its 2007 DVD won “DVD of the year”.
One of the many important projects on which
he was working before his death and that will therefore now remain unfinished,
is the commission to recreate the Italian recitatives for Cherubini’s epic
Medea. Additionally
he was preparing the Australian debut of a Händel ‘pasticcio’ Voyage to the
Moon.
His ability to find the missing pieces of an opera, and to then be
able to reconstruct so many great operas through his editions, has in some ways
its roots deep in his upbringing in rural Michigan USA. His father, Loris
Curtis of Mason, Michigan, was an avid puzzler, and Alan used a similar passion
in finding and, when necessary, composing sections of the missing pieces in
order to bring the entire work back to life.
This rural background also imbued in him a passionate love of
nature and gardens in particular, so that when not making music, his favorite
place was tending the many flowers that were a great joy to him in their
various seasons. This idea of growth, of nurturing was an
essential part of his relationships with many singers, musicians, and artists
as he had an extraordinary ability to see their potential. He simply knew how
to help people around him to ‘grow’, to see the future brilliance of a singer
who was not yet fully 'formed'. As part of this, he coached them not only in
music, but also in stage presence and movement, skills he learned, in part,
from his second wife, the dance historian and choreographer Shirley Wynne (now
deceased).
Joyce DiDonato recently said: “I’ve never known anyone so
unabashedly and infectiously to love music as much as did Alan. He was a Titan in bringing
an avalanche of ‘unknown’ music to modern times, and our musical world is all
the better for it. Rest in peace, Alan”.
“Alan Curtis, burned with the brightest of
flames, one which was finally spent in the blazing heat of a Florentine
summer’s day. But the artistic light
that he so effortlessly shed on all of us who were blessed to come within his
smiling gaze, will illuminate the entire world forever”. John Pascoe. Florence, Italy July
2015.