Eugene Zádor, 2016

Track Listing

Zádor: A Christmas Overture 8:36

Zádor: Biblical Triptych

1. Joseph 8:45
2. David 8:34
3. Paul 7:26

 

Zádor: Rhapsody for Large Orchestra 20:54

 

Zádor: Fugue Fantasia 13:00

Reviews

“The whole program is performed with admirable dedication from Mariusz Smolij and the Budapest Symphony MÁV. Zádor could not have asked for more enthusiastic advocates of his music. The recorded sound, captured in a Hungarian radio station in two sessions from 2014-2015, is fine. I enjoyed this music and am glad to have made its acquaintance.”
—James H. North, Fanfare

 

“The fourth in a series of music by the Hungarian composer, Eugene Zádor, finds him in the United States, where he sought sanctuary from the 1930’s political events. It brought about a massive change in the basic sound of his music, he soon realizing that film music coming out of Hollywood was the way to achieve financial stability. That becomes evident when you compare Rhapsody, composed during his last period in Vienna, with the Biblical Triptych, completed in 1943, by which time he was engaged in orchestrating scores for epic films. In the earlier work we hear the influence of Hungarian folk music, similar to that of Bartók and Kodály, but rather more lightweight in character. The Triptych, for all its sacred content in the pictures of Joseph, David and Paul, has New York glitz gently sprinkled over it, and a ready audience appeal is the result. The disc opens with a popular work aimed at the Christmas market, its four tuneful sections packed into a quite short score.  It was completed in 1961 and if that was pure Americana, he had gone back to his roots three years earlier — his composition teachers having been Heuberger in Vienna and Reger in Leipzig – for the structurally complex Fugue Fantasia. The Budapest Orchestra, under the direction of Mariusz Smolij, have been dedicated performers throughout this series…”
—David Denton, David’s Review Corner