A student of Gustav Leonhardt, Michigan-born Alan Curtis was one of the leading lights in historically informed Baroque performance. He loved unearthing little-known treasures such as Gluck's Ezio, which he recorded for Erato with his ensemble Il Complesso Barocco.
“Curtis conducts with mingled elegance and fire, pacing the drama expertly and drawing vital playing from his period band," wrote Gramophone.
Curtis also made benchmark recordings of Handel operas, and a best-selling recital album with American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, Drama Queens.
As a student in the 1950s he was the first modern harpsichordist to address the problems of Louis Couperin’s unmeasured preludes and he subsequently recreated operas by composers such as Monteverdi and Rameau, using period instruments and choreography based on original sources. He commissioned both the first modern copy of a chitarrone and the first chromatic (split-key) harpsichord to be built in the twentieth century and, in a production of Handel’s Admeto in 1978, subsequently recorded, he made the first successful attempt to revive Handel’s opera orchestra, including the now widely accepted use of the archlute.
His numerous operatic revivals and reconstructions include Handel’s Floridante, Radamisto andDeidamia, Gluck’s Armide and the first modern performances of Vivaldi’s Il Giustino. In addition to Admeto his recordings with Il Complesso Barocco include Handel’s first Italian opera Rodrigo, the oratorio Il Sansone by Benedetto Ferrari, two volumes of Monteverdi’s chamber duets and madrigals by Michelangelo Rossi and Antonio Lotti. Three of Alan Curtis’ previous recordings have won the International Handel Recording Prize, a remarkable achievement: Arminio in 2002, Deidamia in 2004 and Radamisto in 2006.
His ensemble, Il Complesso Barocco, issued the following statement:
"Today, in his beloved Florence, Alan Curtis died suddenly, cut off in the midst of his ongoing work as both conductor and musicologist. Alan was one of the legendary musicologists responsible for the revival of interest in Early Music. His orchestra, Il Complesso Barocco, which he led since its creation in 1977, was one of the first and best known groups to play the rediscovered music of Monteverdi, Cavalli, Handel, and many others.
"His scholarship and conducting helped lead to the revival of international interest in and enthusiasm for this music, and his many performances and recordings only added to the revival of public enthusiasm. He will be deeply mourned by generations of musicians who have profited from this work and will be profoundly missed by the many musicians and music-lovers who came to respect, admire, and love him over the decades of his work."
