Arnold Schoenberg Chor - Erwin Schulhoff: Flammen (Flames)

In the 1920s and 30s, Czechoslovakia was flourishing culturally and boasted a multi-faceted musical scene. In considering the works of composers such as Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, Hans Kr�sa, Viktor Ullmann and Erwin Schulhoff, we can see how they develop along similar stylistic lines, as measured against the established �Prague School�, which was a counter-movement to the �Viennese School�. Schulhoff�s early works feature a Reger-influenced late Romantic approach that later developed, through an emphasis on rhythm, towards expressionism and neo-classicism, while also including elements of jazz. The starting point for Flammen is the Don Juan story, but the aim of Bene� and Schulhoff�s work is not to present the colourful seducer, but the fate of a man driven by his desires and needs who cannot even remotely find happiness and peace in constancy. In his opera, Schulhoff brilliantly manages to reconcile this different dramaturgical approach with a kind of distanced homage to Mozart�s work.