The Five Pieces for String Quartet were the work with which Erwin Schulhoff achieved his breakthrough in Salzburg in 1924. The dedication to his French colleague Darius Milhaud reveals what he was aiming for: the concise brevity of the movements, the suite-like sequence, and the aphoristic treatment of the material. The "Five Pieces" are primarily rhythmically inspired, which is probably why one review described them as "nice and lively dance pieces." One should not be fooled by this pleasantness: Schulhoff experiments ingeniously with motivic, metrical, and harmonic forms.

Novus Quartet

Oct 12, 2025

In the middle of the 20th century

Novus Quartet