Ervín Schulhoff’s 1994 centenary inspired a windfall of recording projects from several labels (Koch and Supraphon most prominently) that drew attention to the wide range of works he managed to complete before his tragic concentration camp death in 1942. Schulhoff was a virtuoso pianist and improviser in his own right, and his keyboard writing is fresh, energetic, and spilling over with invention. If I were to describe his Sonata or Suite movements, or his jazz-inspired etudes, I’d characterize them as an original fusion of 1920s novelty piano, Ravel’s jewel-like textures, and Hindemith’s pan-tonal, symmetrical language, with Poulenc brashly darting in and out of the scene at inopportune moments. Likewise, Schulhoff’s acerbic “updating” of Zez Confrey’s Kitten on the Keys transcends its parodistic intent.
Much of this music is difficult to play, yet Kathyrn Stott makes everything sound easy, especially in comparison to other pianists who’ve risen to Schulhoff’s challenges. In the First Sonata’s slow movement, for example, Stott doesn’t hold back as the Allegro agitato’s momentum builds, and she dives into the Second Suite’s concluding Gigue at a true, uncompromising Allegro furioso. At times Tomás Visek (on Supraphon) casts a gentler, more poetic, introspective hue upon slower, lyrical movements, but Stott conveys Schulhoff’s syncopations to more idiomatic and “swinging” effect. My only quibbles concern the overly bright engineering and an occasional buzzing sound from the piano strings. Otherwise, this disc augurs well for further Stott/Schulhoff explorations. (Are you listening, BIS?) [6/21/2003]
