Franz Curti (1854-1898)

[Wheesht]

This weekend, a festival dedicated to the music of Swiss-German composer Franz Curti (1854-1898) is taking place in Rapperswil Switzerland, today with a performance of his dramatic cantata from 1882, Die Gletscherjungfrau (The Glacier Maiden).

Apparently there are plans to stage his later opera Reinhard von Ufenau in the place where it is set, on the island of Ufenau in Lake Zürich.

A double CD with excerpts recorded in Geneva in 2005 is available to order from the Curti festival website.
Here is his Wikipedia entry. It is interesting to note that he studied medicine and worked as a dentist in Dresden. While most of his works were published and his opera Lili-Tsee was apparently performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Curti was denied membership of the Dresden "Tonkünstlerverein": 'We do not accept dentists.'

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for this! I confess I'd never heard of Curti, so I have ordered the CDs...

These are the works listed by Wikipedia (with a couple of corrected translations!)

Choral:
Wenn ich wär der Mondenschein (If I were the moonlight), in Six Vocal Quartets, op. 2
Zwiefacher Frühling (Twice Spring), op. 8
Vier Männerquartette (Four Male Quartets), op. 12
Frieden der Nacht (Peace of the Night), op. 17
Die Schlacht (The Battle), op. 45

Solo:
Am See (By the lake), op. 6
Ave Maria, op. 7
Seligkeit (Bliss), op. 11
Der Maria Wiegenlied (Lullaby for Maria), op. 16

Stage and opera:
Die Gletscherjungfrau (The Glacier Maiden), M. Vollhardt-Wittich, cantata, later reworked into an opera, 1882
Hertha, M. Vollhardt-Wittich, romantic opera, 1887
Reinhard von Ufenau, 1889
Erlöst (Redeemed), one act music drama, 1893
Lili-Tsee, 1896
Das Rösli vom Säntis (Rösli from Mount Säntis), 1898

Instrumental:
Symphony in B flat major, op. 14
Semele (F. v. Schiller), 1887
Die Schweiz (Switzerland), orchestral suite, 1892
Schneefried, 1895

[Mark Thomas]

Franz was the son of Anton Curti , a well-regarded operatic tenor. About ten years before Franz was born, Anton and his brother (a doctor) persuaded their friend Raff (then a young schoolteacher in Rapperswil) to send some of his very earliest piano compositions to Mendelssohn, who arranged for them to be published and so set Raff on the rocky road to becoming a full-time composer, The rather fine Curti house still stands in the old part of the town, beneath the castle.

[semloh]

The Curti Festival is the subject of a couple of short YT items, in German:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5F1KA-X8UQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj7257ZvLxM
And there's a version of his Klagelied - Lamentation - Op.41, Nº2 at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12xvr6lbo7s

[Rainolf]

If you have the opportunity to go to Dresden in July you can hear some male chorus works by Curti, performed open air in the Franz Curti Street:

https://singakademie-dresden.de/konzerte-karten/15-07-2022-komponistenstrasse-curti.html

15. Juli 2022, 19.00 Uhr

Franz-Curti-Straße, Dresden Loschwitz

OPEN-AIR-KONZERTE

Werke von Franz Curti

KOMPONISTENSTRASSENKONZERT - FRANZ CURTI

Projektmännerchor der Singakademie Dresden
Michael Käppler & Robert Schad | Leitung

(Other concerts of this type will be performed with music of Silcher and Draeseke.)