Curtis Commands Intermezzo
- Conductor Harry Curtis
THE FOURTH AND FINAL Intermezzo of Spoleto Festival USA featured members of the Spoleto Festival Orchestra under the sure-fire baton of English conductor Harry Curtis. The concert had perfect programming: George Frederic Handel’s Water Music Suite No. 2 in D Major, HWV 349, Igor Stravinsky’s Concerto in E-flat “Dumbarton Oaks,” and Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 6 in D Major “Le matin,” H I:6.
Curtis, who is young and already has an impressive background, led the orchestra in an energetic and spirited manner. He had the violins divided left and right, but this did not add any significant clarity, as the orchestra was small and seated close together.
After the Messiah, one of Handel’s most famous works is Water Music. The 1717 second suite is ripe with the most familiar sections. Written for King George I to be serenaded on the Thames River, this Baroque masterpiece is lively and ceremonial, majestic, and grand.
With blazing brass (the trumpet and French horns were second to none), Curtis elicited the finest possible playing in a most courtly manner. Leaping into the twentieth century, Curtis and his crew found delight in the typically spiky Stravinsky creation. This 1937–38 neo-classical chamber music work is full of Stravinsky’s usual jerky and halting stop/go rhythms. Borrowing his model from Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti, Stravinsky produced a droll tonal romp.
Rounding out this late Friday afternoon performance was an early Haydn symphony (1761?). Father of the symphony and the string quartet, Austrian born Haydn was at the forefront of the Classical period in music. One of three symphonies covering morning (heard here), midday and evening, this witty and original work sprang to life in Curtis’ sure hand. His small orchestra sounded quite large in Grace Episcopal Church’s excellent acoustics.
In these Intermezzi over the years, this characteristic has effectively made a number of individual performers and groups sound much bigger than they really were—to their great advantage.
The audience was large. After an appreciative standing ovation, Curtis and company offered a brief encore—a short storm scene from Baroque era Jean-Phillipe Rameau’s Les Boréades (a Tragédie en musique stage work), composed and rehearsed in 1763, but unperformed due to unclear circumstances—until the 20th century).
Curtis possesses an intuitive musicianship. He was Steven Sloane’s assistant for this year’s The Magic Flute. He is Sloane’s assistant conductor at the Bochum Symphony in Germany. Curtis will be going places in the music world.
The program notes by Jack Sullivan handed out at this program and other concerts during this Spoleto Festival USA were an example of useful and informative commentary and observations.
