Alfred Schulz-Curtius

Alfred Schulz-Curtius (c. 1853 – 4 March 1918), also known as Alfred Curtis, was a German-British classical music impresario who was active primarily in continental Europe and the United Kingdom from the 1870s until the 1910s.

Schulz-Curtius was born in Kleinwolmsdorf near Radeberg and Dresden to Johann Heinrich Curtius and Agnes Schulz Curtius.[1] In 1876,[2][3] he founded the eponymous Alfred Schulz-Curtius music and artists management agency in the West End of London at 44 Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus. He is most well known for his popularization of the music of Richard Wagner.[2][4][5][6] In 1882, he arranged the first British staging of the epic Ring Cycle, conducted by Anton Seidl and directed by Angelo Neumann.[7] He became a British citizen in 1896.[1]

During his four or more decades of professional activity, Schulz-Curtius organized dozens of concerts at concert and recital venues such as St James's Hall,[7] Queen's Hall,[8][9][10] the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden,[11] Wigmore Hall,[12] which was then known as Bechstein Hall,[13] and collaborated with other impresarios as well such as Robert Newman, founder of The Proms.

Alfred Schulz-Curtius had great enthusiasm for the string instruments designed by Dr. Alfred Stelzner[12] and went to great lengths to encourage their use by soloists, ensembles and orchestras.

The conductors with whom Schulz-Curtius worked include Hermann Levi,[7][9] Felix Mottl,[7][8] Percy Pitt,[10] Hans Richter,[7][14][15] and Henry Joseph Wood.[8][9][10] Others among the many artists whom he represented include pianist Ferruccio Busoni,[16] violinist Jan Kubelík,[17] soprano Dame Nellie Melba,[17] and cellist Guilhermina Suggia.[13]

He married Helen Mary Perry in 1908, and they had at least one son, Alfred Siegfried Curtis.[18]

At the beginning of World War I, Lionel Powell[19] was taken on as a partner[2] in the agency (renamed Schulz-Curtius Powell) when Schulz-Curtius, a German national, was interned as an "enemy alien", despite having become a naturalized British subject in 1896, and changing his name by deed poll to Alfred Curtis on 24 September 1914.[20] Powell continued to manage the agency through the 1920s[21] after the death of its founder in Bournemouth, Hampshire, on 4 March 1918.[22] He was 64 years old.

Legacy

From the early 1930s, South African Harold Holt[2][3] managed the agency as Harold Holt Ltd until his death in 1953. In 1956, Sir Ian Hunter joined the agency and, in 1969,[23] by which time Harolt Holt Ltd was owned by Ibbs and Tillett, purchased it.

In the late 1990s,[3] the agency which Alfred Schulz-Curtius had founded more than 120 years earlier merged with the Lies Askonas agency to form Askonas Holt.

References

1. UK, Naturalisation Certificates and Declarations, 1870-1916
2. Fifield 2005, ch. 22, p. 308
3. "The History of Askonas Holt". Askonas Holt website. Archived from the original on 16 November 2007.
4. "In the World of Music: What the Composers, Players, Singers, and Managers Are Doing in Various Places". The New York Times. 19 March 1899. p. 6. Full article
5. "Alfred Schulz-Curtius' Grand Wagner Concerts (1894–98)". Online database of library/archive holdings of concert programmes. Maintained by Cardiff University in collaboration with the Royal College of Music. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 7 November 2007.
6. Sir John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the British Library: Music Archived 10 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine ("Brochure for 1898 Ring by Alfred Schultz-Curtius, Playbills 350, folio 64." British Library.)
7. Fifield 2005, ch. 3, pp. 25–26
8. "Of Music and Musicians". The New York Times. 3 January 1904. p. 17. Full article
9. Sir Henry Joseph Wood (1946). My Life of Music. Books for Libraries Press. ISBN 978-0-8369-5820-1.
10. M. (1 January 1911). "Mr. Percy Pitt". The Musical Times. 52 (819): 293–295. doi:10.2307/905399. JSTOR 905399.
11. "Musical Matters Abroad". The New York Times (quoting The Pall Mall Gazette). 29 January 1899. p. 6. Full article
12. James Christensen. "Dr. Alfred Stelzner: Pioneer in Violin Acoustics". International Draeseke Society.
13. Guilhermina Suggia (January 1905). "O Regresso de Leipzig (The Return to Leipzig)". Excerpt from Guilhermina Suggia – A Sonata de Sempre by Fátima Pombo) (in Portuguese). The Hague.
14. "Autograph Letter Signed by Richter, Hans (1843–1916)". Biblio Booksearch and Marketplace for Visible Ink Incorporated Inventory #41024. 31 May 1907. Archived from the original on 9 June 2011.
15. Special Correspondence (8 December 1907). "A Boy Paderewski: Musical Prodigy Makes a Sensation in London". The Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Dispatches. The New York Times. p. C4.
16. Ferruccio Busoni (1895–1907). "Letters to his wife".
17. "Melba-Kubelik Tour. Other Well-Known Artists to Join Concert Combination in America". Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph. The New York Times. 6 February 1913. p. 4. full article (Photo of Gabriel LaPierre Archived 15 June 2007 at archive.today with Jan Kubelík.)
18. London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754–1932
19. "Obituary: Lionel John Manning Powell". The Musical Times. 73 (1068): 175. 1 January 1932. JSTOR 914478.
20. "The London Gazette". The London Gazette. 29 September 1914. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
21. Kenyon, Nicholas (1 January 1980). "Beecham and the BBC Symphony Orchestra: A Collaboration That Never Happened". The Musical Times. 121 (1652): 625–628. doi:10.2307/961148. JSTOR 961148.
22. Principal Probate Registry. Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England.
23. Fifield 2005, ch. 24, p. 341

Sources

• Fifield, Christopher (2005). Ibbs and Tillett: The Rise and Fall of a Musical Empire. London: Ashgate Publishing. ch. 22, p. 308. ISBN 978-1-84014-290-7. ("General index, Ashgate)