There are composers whose life story you can scarcely separate from their music. Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942) is one of them. When you put on this new recording by Quartetto Eridàno, you hear not just notes, but an entire era: the twilight of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the shockwaves of the Great War, the vibrant cultural melting pot of 1920s Prague – and, inevitably, the shadow that would subsequently fall over it all. That the young Italian Quartetto Eridàno ventures into this repertoire deserves all praise: Schulhoff's music demands not only technical refinement, but also the ability to constantly shift between styles, moods and registers.
The programme opens, significantly, not with the most familiar pages. The Divertimento op. 14 from 1914 still breathes the spirit of Haydn and Mozart, with its gallant dance rhythms and hunting horn gestures, but in the Cavatina and Romanza a subtle unease already emerges. The Quartetto Eridàno resists the temptation to approach this work as merely elegant or decorative; the musicians let the lyricism breathe freely and give the underlying melancholy full space, without overdoing it.
With the Five Pieces WV 68 (1923) the mood shifts. This is Schulhoff as a stylistic omnivore: a swaying Viennese waltz with an ironic undertone, a sly serenade, a Bohemian folk dance, a sultry tango and an exuberant tarantella. The four musicians play these miniatures with evident pleasure. Their articulation remains sharp, the rhythmic flexibility is infectious and the many changes of character proceed naturally, without the music ever falling apart into loose stylistic exercises.
The heart of the cd is formed by the two string quartets. The First Quartet (1924) opens with a Presto con fuoco that is genuinely tense: nervous, sharply profiled and full of energy. Noteworthy is how the Quartetto Eridàno in the second movement carefully weighs irony and melancholy against each other. In the rustic scherzo the Slavic influences gain an earthy directness, while the finale excels through its restrained concentration. The musicians dare to let the music thin out here to an almost weightless transparency, making the lonely lines of the first violin all the more compelling.
The Second Quartet (1925) is more compact and direct. The opening movement possesses an almost mechanical motoricism, while the variation sequence constantly shifts colour: folk music warmth is unexpectedly crossed by a playful foxtrot, a typically Schulhoffian interplay of disparate musical worlds. With Schulhoff, such blending is never merely ironic: it reflects a time in which folk music, jazz, dance and classical tradition did not stand opposed to each other, but continually influenced one another. The Quartetto Eridàno knows how to make such transitions sound organic and always maintains a clear overview of the form. The finale grows from its contemplative beginning to a convincing apotheosis, without losing sight of the underlying ambiguity.
What ultimately makes this recording so convincing is the combination of clarity and commitment. The Quartetto Eridàno – Davide Torrente and Sofia Gimelli (violin), Carlo Bonicelli (viola) and Chiara Piazza (cello) – lets the four voices sound in exemplary balance, so that Schulhoff's often layered writing style never becomes clogged anywhere. The recording quality also helps: the sound is transparent and direct, with enough warmth to give the lyrical moments their full impact. The Quartetto Eridàno presents Schulhoff not as a historical curiosity, but as a composer who effortlessly connects different musical worlds with each other and developed a completely individual voice in doing so.
The fact that Schulhoff died in the internment camp Wülzburg in 1942 makes his music inevitably also a testament to a vanished world in hindsight. His music survived him, fortunately. This edition lets us hear why: not only because of its inventiveness and stylistic richness, but also because the Quartetto Eridàno brings it to life with intelligence, conviction and a fine sense for contrasts. The result is a recording that has much to offer both new listeners and those familiar with Schulhoff's oeuvre.