Eugene Zádor, 2024

Track Listing

Zádor: Accordion Concerto (1972) 15:28

1. I Allegro moderato 4:36
2. II Moderto 5:23
3. III Rondo alla zingaresca 5:29

Zádor: Romance (early 1920s) 3:55
Zádor: Suite for Brass Instruments (1961) 13:16

1. I Allegro moderato – Vivo 5:35
2. II Andante 4:42
3. III Allegro – Molto vivo 2:59

Zádor: Berceuse (c. 1972) 3:05
Zádor: Hungarian Fantasy (c. 1943) 12:31

Zádor: Piano Quintet (1933) 25:03

1. I Allegro con spirito 7:17
2. II Tempo moderato 6:58
3. III Vivace 7:53
4. lV Allegro molto 2:55

Reviews

The most recent work on this disc is the Accordion Concerto from 1972, composed for the long-lived virtuoso Anthony Galla-Rini, who toured with the work for the remainder of the decade. Zádor’s affinity for composing for the accordion had been recognized since at least 1955, when the California chapter of the Accordion Teachers Guild International commissioned him to compose an unrelated piece for the instrument.

In the concerto, the soloist immediately enters with a rising and falling lyrical wisp soon tripped by a stuttering figure with a side-slipping tail. Zádor then sub-divides these into separate components which he jostles through the movement’s development and right through to its sunny coda. Its middle movement is led by a melody whose initial rising five-note gesture uncannily anticipates, of all things, Uematsu Nobuo’s main theme from Final Fantasy VII. A short passage with accordion supported by string tremolos momentarily evokes Bartókian night music that swiftly transforms into a ghostly procession. Light and levity, highlighted by xylophone and snare drum, return in the “Rondo alla zingaresca” finale, which ends with a joyful dance. Read the full review…

—Néstor Castiglione, MusicWeb International