Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1; Schulhoff: Piano Concerto
Herbert Schuch (piano); WDR Sinfonieorchester/Tung-Chieh Chuang
CAvi-music AVI 8553539 72:29 mins
Erwin Schulhoff is one of the most fascinating of those composers caught up in the turbulent mix of post-war musical styles, veering from austere 12-note writing to jazz influences and neo-classical skittishness. His 1923 Concerto for Piano and Small Orchestra is not as rare as this recording claims: there are good versions by Claire-Marie le Guay, Frank-Immo Zichner and Aleksandar Madžar.
But this new one is uncommonly effective, well recorded, sharp-edged and witty, with Herbert Schuch a crisp soloist. If the work is too wild to fully add up, it deserves more outings and would make a great piece for the BBC Proms (where, mea culpa among others, not a note of Schulhoff has been heard).
However, perhaps the selling point of this new recording is that it also includes Schulhoff’s cadenza to Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto. This is a wacky little essay in overlapping themes and bell-like descending chromatic thirds.
It shows a lack of confidence in the project for Schuch to give Beethoven’s own cadenza precedence in the full performance, with Schulhoff’s only on an added track of the first movement. But both work well in vividly expanding the musical language of the concerto, and the playing is exceptionally fresh.
Schuch has a way of maintaining pulse and energy while finding room for rubato, and his gentle pulling back in some episodes is spine-tingling. In the riotous finale he takes a big risk with the improvisational approach from bar 505 – but it works, and Chuang’s fine orchestra plays along perfectly.