The mysterious Michael Zadora was born in New York in 1882, scion
of a Baronial Polish family. His first lessons came from his
father and a debut as an eight
year old duly followed. In 1899 he left for lessons with Leschetitzky in Vienna
and Heinrich Barth in Berlin. Thereafter he taught before returning to America
in 1913 taking up a teaching position at the Institute for Musical Art. After
the war he was back in Berlin, and as with Gunnar Johansen, and Petri, and so
many others, he came under the spell of Busoni whose music he performed widely.
In fact Zadora was the first to give an all-Busoni programme in 1923 and with
Petri he gave two-piano recitals. He also prepared the piano part of
Doktor
Faust. The mid-1930s saw him back in America, giving annual recitals, writing
and arranging pieces. His wrote music for a Broadway show. It closed the following
day, it seems. Zadora died in 1946.
For the most part these recordings were made in Berlin in the decade or so between
the early 1920s and the early 1930s. The repertoire is typical of his programming.
It was only when he was back in America that, in 1938, he set down recordings
of two Busoni Sonatinas. Incidentally I should note this isn’t quite the ‘complete’ recordings,
as advertised, because as the notes themselves make clear two items are missing;
pieces by Amadis (ie. Zadora) and by Strockhoff, - on an electric Polydor 19099.
Zadora used a Blüthner piano for his earlier sequence, and its tone comes
across well in the acoustically recorded sides, which are all contained in the
first disc. He was already 40 by the time he made these first recordings and
plays with facility, affection and a fair degree of caprice which sometimes borders
on affectation. However the pearly limpidity of his tone - sample the B minor
Chopin Waltz - is undeniably alluring and the ‘Aeolian Harp’ Etude
is similarly a fine choice to set down, one that suits his will o’ the
wisp and rubato-rich approach. His Chopin in general promotes a slightly rococo
character. What’s not in doubt is the frilly charm of his Raff, nor its
sturdy nobility, or the stormy petrel that is his reading of Sgambati’s
Prelude in E flat minor. His singing tone enriches the Scarlatti-Tausig Pastorale
and the charm of Rubinstein’s ubiquitous Romance suits him better than
the impersonally dispatched Brahms Intermezzo. His Field Nocturne must be one
of the earliest on record, and the first disc ends with two of his own fripperies,
droll dance-patterned affairs.
The second disc is more concentrated but also expansive as it were, running from
Bach to Prokofiev via Busoni and Debussy amongst others. The sequence was recorded
in the late 1920s, the early 1930s and then those two 1938 Busonis, which were
his last recordings. They disclose a real affinity with Busoni’s writing,
undimmed in the fifteen years since the composer’s death; in 1924 Zadora
had played some Mendelssohn to the dying composer. Sonority is powerful, pedalling
is controlled, there’s a bell-peal tone; these two performances are certainly
important documents. So too in its way is the Sonatina No. 6 recorded back in
Berlin c.1929, but here Zadora’s technique comes under strain. Elsewhere
we can hear, in these electric sides, a Chopin
Minute waltz even naughtier
than the c.1922 acoustic. The C sharp minor Waltz is another remake of that earlier
recording. The Prokofiev is the Prelude in C major - again, very early to be
recording Prokofiev, and splendidly done. The Delibes and Jensen hyphenates are
accomplished but decidedly salon in orientation. Much better is the Bach-attributed
Sarabande and Partita, imposingly and nobly done.
A few of the recordings can be a touch steely in places due to their rarity,
but Mark Obert-Thorn ensures that Zadora’s tonal qualities are respected
and this is accomplished work. So too Jonathan Summers’ booklet notes.
Maybe that missing Zadora disc will emerge in due course and can be appended
to a repressing of this disc, or somewhere else. But it’s splendid to have
this corpus of recordings available in one handy slim-line double.
Jonathan Woolf
Track listing
CD 1
Acoustic Recordings; Recorded early 1920s
Fryderyk CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Waltz in A-Flat, Op.69 No.1 [3:53]
Waltz in B Minor, Op.69 No.2 [3:59]
Waltz in C-Sharp Minor, Op.64 No.2 [3:12]
Nocturne in B, Op.32 No.1 [4:01]
Etude in F Minor, Op.25 No.2 [1:27]
Etude in G-Flat, Op.25 No.9 [0:56]
Etude in A-Flat, Op.25 No.1 [2:03]
Waltz in D-Flat, Op.64 No.1 [1:49]
Franz LISZT (1811-1886)
Consolations S 172; Nos.1 [1:24], 2 [2:36], 3 [2:59] and 5 [2:17]
Joachim RAFF (1822-1882)
La Fileuse, Op.157 No.2 [3:46]
Giovanni SGAMBATI (1841-1914)
Prelude in E-Flat Minor, Op.6 [3:27]
Domenico SCARLATTI (1685-1757)
Pastorale (Sonata, K.478, L.413)
arranged by Carl TAUSIG (1841-1871) [3:41]
Giovanni Battista PERGOLESI (1710-1736)
Arietta, Se tu m'ami, se sospiri arranged by Michael ZADORA (1882-1946) [2:54]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Ecossaises arranged by
Ferrucio BUSONI (
1866-1924) [2:14]
Fryderyk CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Preludes Op.28 Nos.6 in B minor [1:26], 7 in A major [0:47], 13 in F sharp major
[2:37] and 23 in F major [0:43]
Mazurka in A Minor, Op.67 No.4 [2:44]
Anton RUBINSTEIN (1829-1894)
Romance in E-Flat, Op.44 No.1 [2:49]
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Intermezzo in B-Flat Minor, Op.117 No.2 [3:13]
John FIELD (1782-1837)
Nocturne No.5 in B-Flat [2:46]
AMADIS (Michael ZADORA (1882-1946))
The Prima Ballerina [3:23]
Vienna Waltz [2:56]
CD 2
Electrical Recordings; Recorded 1929 - 1938
Fryderyk CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Waltz in D-Flat, Op.64 No.1 [1:45]
Waltz in C-Sharp Minor, Op.64 No.2 [3:24]
Sergei PROKOFIEV (1892-1953)
Prelude in C, Op.12 No.7 [1:36]
LAMARE
La Passion [2:29]
Leo DELIBES (1836-1891)
Valse lente, from Sylvia arranged by Michael ZADORA [2:44]
Adolf JENSEN
(1837-1879)
Murmuring Zephyrs Op.21 No.4 arranged by Michael ZADORA [2:58]
(attrib.)
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Sarabande e Partita in C, BWV 990 (abridged) [7:27]
Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
Prelude and Toccata from
Pour le piano [3:09 + 2:58]
Ferrucio BUSONI (
1866-1924)
Sonatina No.6, after Bizet's Carmen [6:12]
Jacques OFFENBACH (1819-1880)
Barcarolle, from Tales of Hoffmann arranged by Michael ZADORA [3:14]
AMADIS (Michael ZADORA)
Meine Puppe Tanzt [2:01]
Adolf von HENSELT (1814-1889)
Larghetto, from Concerto in F Minor, Op.16 arranged by Michael ZADORA [4:10]
Johann Nepomuk HUMMEL (1778-1837)
Rondo in E-Flat, Op.11 [3:36]
Leo DELIBES (1836-1891)
Valse lente, from Coppélia arranged by Michael Zadora [3:30]
Pizzicati, from Sylvia [2:39]
Ferrucio BUSONI (
1866-1924)
Sonatina No.3 "Ad usum infantis" [5:31]
Sonatina No.5 "In diem nativitatis Christi" [5:57]
Michael Zadora (piano) 
