MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Schulhoff: Piano Concerto / Symphony No. 5

This is one of the most powerful symphonies written in clear connection to the approach of World War II in Europe. Its immediate suppression by Nazi authorities made it a virtually unknown work until its rediscover years after its composition.

Erwin Schulhoff (1894 - 1942) was one of the victims of the German death camp system, dying in the Wulzberg concentration camp. Like his contemporary Bohuslav Martinu (1890 - 1959) Schulhoff had an early flirtation with jazz styles. Schulhoff, who was given to accept doctrines and causes, used jazz as part of his embrace of the "Dada" artistic movement.