I don’t think that Erwin Schulhoff wrote a dull note in his tragically brief life (he died in 1942 in a Nazi prison camp), and his string quartet output proves this beyond question. The composer took to the medium like a duck to water, and these works from his productive early period are packed with melodic humor and ingenious textural variety achieved through a similar economy of means to Shostakovich’s middle quartets. What is more, Schulhoff never takes longer than necessary to say what he needs to say.
The Aviv Quartet may not posesses the lightness and conversational demeanor that give the Kocian Quartet’s Supraphon recordings an idiomatic edge, yet the Aviv’s glitch-free technical sheen and penchant for slower tempos allows inner voices more prominence in thicker passages, such as in the First quartet’s Allegro giocoso movement. Similarly, the dances so affectionately ribbed in the 1923 Five Pieces benefit from the Kocian Quartet’s more characterfully inflected phrasing, yet the Aviv group’s stronger contouring of the pizzicato/arco alterations in the Tarantella and in the Second quartet’s Allegro gajo will cause listeners to sit up and take notice.
Pressed to choose, I’d recommend the Kocian first, if only because they also include Schulhoff’s delightful String Quartet No. 0. However, Naxos’ modest cost, vividly detailed sonics, and excellent annotations enhance the Aviv Quartet’s polished and serious-minded achievement. Well worth hearing. [4/26/2010]
