ICSM Online Journal > Reviews

Schulhoff in Milwaukee
Reviewed by R. James Tobin
posted 13 Nov 2005

Erwin Schulhoff’ s Concerto for String Quartet and Winds was performed by the Fine Arts Quartet and members of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, c onducted by Andreas Delfs, on 16, 17 and 18 April 2004 ( Delfs had previously recorded this work with the Neuss German Chamber Philharmonic in 1996, on a Polygram disc called Schulhoff Concertos alla Jazz, which is still available) . Also on the programme in Milwaukee on 18 April (Holocaust Rememberance Day, Yom HaShoah) were Prokofiev’ s Overture on Hebrew Themes, Williams’ Three Pieces from Schindler’ s List , with Samantha George as violin soloist, and Bloch’ s Schelomo. (The programme was originally intended to feature the premiere of a string- orchestra version of Osvaldo Golijov’ s Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, but other commitments meant that the composer had been unable to complete the work.) This concert was sponsored in part by the Helen Bader Foundation and the Jewish Community Foundation of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, and was a benefit for ‘ A Season of Jewish Music’ .

Schulhoff’ s C oncerto was written in 1930 for radio performance and played by the Ondrič ek Quartet and memb ers of the Czech Philharmonic under Vaclá v Talich in 1932. Schulhoff himself had served in the Austrian army in World War I and studied in Vienna , Leipzig and Cologne . At age seven he had been encouraged by Dvořá k;  he later studied with Debussy and Max Reger. Living in Prague after 1930, he was given Soviet citizenship when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, but was arrested when Germany invaded the Soviet union; he died in a concentration camp in Bavaria in 1942.

The style of this concerto is very much neo- classical, comparable to Hindemith’ s music, and is in three movements. The duration is about 22 minutes. The m omentum tends to be intense in the outer movements, with the middle m ovement a largo. Although there are some jazz elements, these are not as prominent as one might expect. The scoring includes cor anglais , bass clarinet, c ontrabassoon and bass tuba, in addition to the flute, piccolo, clarinet, horns, trumpets and trombones. In this performance the winds were in a curved line behind the spread- out members of the string quartet. The strings escaped being overwhelmed by the winds because they played alone a significant amount of the time. The Fine Arts Quartet, with a substantial recorded repertoire, is resident at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has a devoted local following. They certainly did not disappoint on this occasion, nor did the wind- players. Delfs is a fine conductor and music director, with consistently interesting programmes, as this one attests.

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