MAV Symphony Orchestra, Mariusz Smolij - Zádor: Biblical Triptych (2016)

Tracklist

01. A Christmas Overture
02. Biblical Triptych: I. Joseph
03. Biblical Triptych: II. David
04. Biblical Triptych: III. Paul
05. Rhapsody for Large Orchestra
06. Fugue Fantasia

Eugene (or Jenö) Zádor fled Hungary for the U.S. at the beginning of World War II, contributed to a number of minor film scores, and ended up as an orchestrator in the employ of Miklós Rózsa. He wrote a large amount of concert music that has been excavated by Naxos and presented on a growing series of CDs. Zádor described his own style as lying halfway between La Traviata and Lulu, but at least in the music here -- all of it except for the Rhapsody for Large Orchestra (1930) dating from after his immigration to America -- film music left its mark as well. Rhapsody is influenced by Strauss and Reger (who taught Zádor), and it's fairly heavy going. But America lightened his style a bit, and the album's title work, the Biblical Triptych (1943), is exciting and vivid in a Ben Hur type of way. Zádor's music has a kind of tunefulness that sets it apart from the products of the other Central Europeans who came to Hollywood. The Hungarian studio sound of this release is a bit close, but the little-known Budapest Symphony Orchestra MÁV under Mariusz Smolij confidently handles these often sprawling scores. Recommended for those interested in Hollywood's Central European invasion.

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