Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff was a committed communist and a Jew, so when the Nazis marched into Prague and found Schulhoff still waiting for his Soviet citizenship he was hastily despatched to the concentration camps. He studied under Schoenberg but was inspired more by jazz than serialism, most evident in his ‘Rag Music’ for piano. But that was not all – these three works for string quartet come from the most significant phase of Schulhoff’s career and explore dadaism, neo-classicism and expressionism, along with jazz and atonality. Filled with dynamism and expressive movement, they offer a broader, more compelling document of the composer’s work than his more obvious piano rags.
The folk forms of Bartok are another obvious influence, particularly in the first quartet which careens and bounces like a Gypsy dance. This remains Schulhoff’s most often performed quartet, it’s popularity easily explained in the beguiling manner in which these rustic themes are juggled and reconfigured from movement to movement. The miniatures that comprise the ‘Five Pieces’ also explore dance forms, from tangos to waltzes, in more discrete, easily digestible forms. The ‘Second String Quartet’ of 1925 is the least well known work on the set but I found it to be the strongest: the same rhythmic momentum found in the first quartet is here driven to fiercer extremes. Melodic themes are again tossed about in varied shapes throughout the piece, but with greater variety. The pizzicato jig of the third movement is particularly memorable, strongly reminiscent of Bartok’s Fourth Quartet. This motif is dissolved into calm in the fourth movement, before submitting to a final tussle between anxiety and peace in the finale. This is exciting music, finely played.
Joshua Meggitt
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