WQXR’s Max Fine has a new story titled, “Why You Should Listen to Erwin Schulhoff”, and features Dominic Cheli, James Conlon, and the Colburn School’s Shapeshifter recording:

“In October 2022, Conlon, pianist Dominic Cheli, and artists from the Colburn School released a new album of Schulhoff’s music, Shapeshifter: Music of Erwin Schulhoff. Shapeshifter features the composer’s works primarily from the 1920s (plus one from 1937) including pieces for solo piano, piano and violin, string quartet, and a piano concerto. During this period, Schulhoff, disillusioned from his experiences in World War I, had embraced jazz and dadaism, but “Schulhoff,” Conlon says, “was different than some of the other contemporary composers… He believed that jazz would be the music of the future… he’s really always going to stay interested and committed to jazz, even though he’ll also go off in other directions”. Among the works on Shapeshifter, there’s a section of the one-movement piano concerto from 1923 that Schulhoff labels “Allegro alla Jazz,” in which Schulhoff makes use of an extensive amount of percussion. Meanwhile, his 1937 song “Susi,” also shows an obvious jazz influence in its nostalgia for the Jazz Age of the 1920s.… Shapeshifter, as well as other available recordings of Schulhoff’s music showcase the breadth of Schulhoff’s accomplishments as a composer. Generally, once people have heard Schulhoff’s music, they tend to like it, but, as Conlon points out, “the problem is getting people to hear it in the first place, or produce it in the first place.” 

—Max Fine, WQXR

See the full article on WQXR.com!