Erwin Schulhoff

As some regular forum members may have noticed, I’m rather partial to Erwin Schulhoff. He is, along with Karl Amadeus Hartmann, a greatly neglected figure of 20th Century music. I’m not a music historian, but from what I’ve read, many of his works were hidden or disbursed due to the Nazi crackdown on Entartete Musik and much of it was subsequently not known until the last 20-30 years. The Nazis also cut his life short; he died in a concentration camp during the war. These factors help explain the dearth of music available by him, because I simply cannot see the music being the reason.

Some of you may have read that he is “famous” for putting the Communist Manifesto to music. Well, that may or may not be the case, and I have not found a recording of that work to listen to – nor do I particularly want to, such political works so frequently being, well, poorly written – but much of his earlier music deserves attention. Basically, what he wrote up through the early ‘30s is what one should listen to.

As of today – 10/24/00 – I have five discs of his music, making me the biggest collector of his music that I know by five discs. I can safely suggest both discs of chamber music played by the Petersen Quartet on Cappriccio. Schulhoff’s string quartets and string sextet are exceptional works and they are diverse in style to write the least. The piano concertos played by Jan Simon on Supraphon are well worth having, even if the disc is only 45 minutes long. And find a disc with the Hot Sonata for Piano and Saxophone: it’s a killer. It’s obviously jazz-inspired, as is much of his music from the ‘20s, and while you’ve never heard it, it sounds like you have. I simply love this piece. The version I have is on Koch, but I believe the disc has been deleted from the catalog. There is also a cheapie of his Second Symphony and a couple other orchestral works on Arte Nova. These are less inspiring than his chamber works but may offer some enjoyable listening for some.

I do encourage fans of “modern” classical music to seek some of his music out. Maybe if enough people buy existing discs, new ones will be recorded. That’s my bit of cheerleading for the week.