Erwin SCHULHOFF (1894-1942)
Piano Sonata No.3 (1927) [17:33]
Ironies, Op.34 (1920) [13:07]
10 Piano Pieces, Op.30 (1919) [9:46]
Music for Piano, Op.35 (1920) [17:41]
11 Inventions for piano, Op.36 (1921) [12:39]
Monica Gutman (piano)
Erika Le Roux (four hands piano: Ironies, Op.34)
rec. 2019, Festeeburgkirche, Frankfurt am Main
WERGO WER73852 [70:46]
Discs devoted wholly to Schulhoff’s piano works are relatively thin on the ground but, fortunately, both Caroline Weichert on Grand Piano and Tomas Víšek on Supraphon offer multi-volume editions that have allowed the listener access to a comprehensive survey of this aspect of his portfolio of music.
There’s no indication that Monica Gutman’s Wergo disc is intended to be the first of a similar survey, but it does focus on compositions between 1919 and 1927. This handily corrals opp. 34 to 36 whilst adding the Ten Piano Pieces and the Third Sonata and forms a handy recital, on its own right, of Schulhoff’s exploration of sonata form and miniature alike.
The sonata was commissioned by a French pianist and, perhaps not coincidentally, possesses a sense of clarity that one associates with that school of executants. Its melodic impress as well as its drama are also prime components of its attractiveness and Gutman is keen to stress its quasi improvisazione element in the slow movement by taking it briskly; there’s rather less tranquillo here, for example, than with Víšek. The chromatic melody of the funeral march fourth movement and the Janus-faced finale – striding ahead but summing up – are both finely judged.
The aphoristic Ten Pieces of 1919 are bound together harmonically so as not to fracture into unglueable shards and reflect his interest in Schoenberg. If the indications ‘Mit Brutalität’ and ‘Brutal’ get you going, it should be pointed out that they’re not all like that. The Inventions of 1921 are dedicated to Ravel – it’s perhaps overlooked, given the Ragtime-Dada element to Schulhoff’s musical make-up – that there was a definable Francophile element in his compositional writing. Here we find another terse, brisk cycle of 11 pieces, several barely 30 seconds long. There’s a gloomy Lento, a playful Moderato and a diaphanous Adagio to enjoy amongst other things.
Music for Piano combines free atonality with ostinati, a powerful synthesis that, given its extremely odd structure (a very long Theme and Variations and three brief other movements), gives the work a sense of constant instability. It is nevertheless a much more aurally hospitable work than the Piano Pieces of the previous year, its extroversion as well as its limpidity annexing both burlesque and the nocturnal. It’s a thoroughly diverting work that should be played in recital much more often than is the case.
The final piece is Ironies for piano four-hands where Maria Gutman is joined by Erika Le Roux. Here the Weimar Schulhoff is unleashed. The six panels include Grosz-inspired fanfares in a military march rapidly going nowhere, a sardonic waltz, and the curdled Ragtime that lurks within a Tempo di Fox.
The church acoustic has been well negotiated by the recording team; the sound doesn’t billow but remains focused. Notes are fine and the performances by Gutman – and her pianistic partner Le Roux – capture Schulhoff’s various selves with great perception.
Jonathan Woolf
