SCHULHOFF Forbidden Music

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Ervín Schulhoff

Genre:

Orchestral

Label: Challenge Classics

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 59

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: CC72730

CC72730. SCHULHOFF Forbidden Music

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 Ervín Schulhoff, Composer
Andrew Grams, Conductor
Daahoud Salim, Piano
Ervín Schulhoff, Composer
Symphony Orchestra of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam
Suite No 3 for Left Hand Piano Ervín Schulhoff, Composer
Daahoud Salim, Piano
Ervín Schulhoff, Composer
Suite dansante en jazz Ervín Schulhoff, Composer
Daahoud Salim, Piano
Ervín Schulhoff, Composer
Ironien Ervín Schulhoff, Composer
Ervín Schulhoff, Composer
Nadzeda Filippova, Piano
Erwin Schulhoff’s Second Piano Concerto of 1923 is a strange beast, opening among chiming solo figurations, with woodwinds intoning above them, then by 1'51" (on this recording) slipping into ‘song without end’ mode, complete with a weepy violin accompaniment. Pianist Frank-Immo Zichner (with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Roland Kluttig) seems less at home with this aspect of the piece than does Daahoud Salim, though when it comes to the hard-hitting Allegro alla jazz finale Zichner goes for all-out-aggression, at least initially. It’s an impressive work, with expansive cadenza episodes (solo piano and solo violin again engage unaccompanied for a chunk of the finale) and there’s some very mysterious orchestral writing around the centre of the piece.

The other ‘accompanied’ composition included is for piano four hands (where Salim is joined by Nadezda Filippova), the Ironies, Op 34 of 1923, its closing movements – Allegro deciso and Tempo de fox – dominated by the brand of ‘theatre jazz’ that was at the hub of Schulhoff’s ‘Roaring Twenties’ phase. The Third Suite for the left hand (1926) is more securely grounded in mainstream 20th-century piano music, the Prelude in Debussy, the third movement unmistakably reflecting Bartók in Hungarian ‘folk dance’ mode, the finale more along the lines of Ravel. But perhaps the most impressive work on the disc is the Suite dansante en jazz of 1931, where jazz is absorbed in a more sophisticated way, Gershwin a prominent influence, the two slow movements – Waltz and Slow – being especially lovely.

Daahoud Salim has obviously taken great pains over all these pieces, though Kathryn Stott also does a pretty impressive job with the Suite. Her programming context is entirely solo (including the Hot Music or ‘Ten Studies in Syncopation’), whereas Salim’s winning account of the concerto, where he’s very alertly supported by the Symphony Orchestra of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam under Andrew Grams, adds plenty of flavour to his programme. An enjoyable disc, very well recorded.

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