Schulhoff, Erwin (1894-1942)

Czech pianist and composer. Recent performances of his opera Flammen/Flames (1928) suggest a powerful assimilation of a wide range of contemporary influences, including jazz and microtonality (using divisions of the octave smaller than a semitone).

He studied at the conservatories of Prague, Vienna, Leipzig, and Cologne. As a communist in Nazi-ruled Czechoslovakia, he sought refuge in Soviet citizenship, but after the 1941 invasion of Russia he was arrested, and died in a concentration camp.

Works Opera and stage the opera Flames; ballets Ogelala and Moonstruck; incidental music to Molière's Bourgeois gentilhomme.

Orchestral and chamber two symphonies; piano concerto; chamber music; piano works.