Schoenberg conductor has died, 86
mainStanley Curtis, who has died of Covid-19, was involved as a singer and chorus conductor in the world premiere of Arnold Schoenbgerg’s Jakobsleiter in Vienna.
He went on to become professor of music at SUNY Orange from 1969.
Probably a colleague of Leonard Stein, for many years president of the Schoenberg Society in Los Angeles, where he taught at City College. An excellent pianist who wrote cadenzas for Mozart concertos, which I saw him play, and was fond of Rossini’s little train pieces for piano.
lOzawa premiered Schoenberg’s brief choral “Psalm” with the newly formed San Francisco Symphony Chorus when I was with them.. Some of Schoenberg’s composition students from USC were still around and praised him as a teacher.
For me, “Jacobsleiter” and the Serenade are Schoenberg’s most unappealing and almost impenetrable works. I like the challenge of them, but I don’t find they pay dividends either. Just an opinion.