New York
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In New York, Zádor rented a room on West 91st Street. He supported himself teaching and working as an orchestrator for the Ford Sunday Evening Hour radio program. His first success as a composer came within months of his arrival: Christopher Columbus was given its world premiere on October 8, 1939. The German libretto had been written by Archduke Josef Franz, based on his play; the English translation was done by Josepha Checkova.
The performance came about by happy accident. Zádor had gone to a concert in the spring of 1939, and at intermission he accidentally stepped on a woman’s toe. He apologized and the two struck up a conversation. As it happened, she was the wife of the Hungarian conductor Ernö Rapée. Impressed by Zádor, she offered to introduce him to her husband. In July, Zádor presented Christopher Columbus to Rapée, who accepted it after hearing only the first seven pages. The performance, in concert form, took place three months later at the Radio City Center Theater. Rapée conducted the NBC Orchestra, and the lead roles were sung by Robert Weede and Jan Peerce of the Metropolitan Opera. In his letters, Zádor wrote that he had never had such a success, even in Vienna. The theater audience of two thousand had called him to the stage several times for bows. It was broadcast nationally and even transmitted via shortwave to Mexico and South America. Despite these successes, Zádor was worried about his future in the United States, as he was struggling financially. When he received an offer from MGM to compose music for films, Zádor took it. Hollywood All of Zádor’s music for films is uncredited. The Mortal Storm is of particular interest in this regard. Film credit went to Edward Kane, who never existed. The score was actually written by Eugene Zádor and Bronislaw Kaper but neither composer wanted his name used |
as they both had family in Europe and feared for them, especially given the anti-Nazi storyline of the film. So it was decided that “Edward” would be substituted for “Eugene” and “Kane” for “Kaper."
Zádor's Biblical Triptych (1943) was inspired by Thomas Mann’s novels, collectively titled Joseph and his Brothers. The work was premiered by the Chicago Symphony in December of 1943 and was performed by the San Francisco Symphony in January 1944. Widely praised by the critics, it also impressed its most important listener, Thomas Mann: “You have succeeded admirably in doing with musical tone that which I attempted to do with words, namely to unite primitive Oriental sound with modern sensibility and understanding. It is a real satisfaction for me to know that my story has inspired a master in the art which has ever been very dear to me, to create a work of such beauty and so full of the promise of permanency.” Family Life Zádor was able to reunite with Maria Steiner in November of 1946. Since he was not permitted to go to Vienna, nor she to the United States, they met in Geneva. There they married. By 1950, Zádor’s household had grown to six. A son, Leslie, and a daughter, Peggy, had been born, and Maria Zádor's parents had come from Vienna. Many decades later, a great-niece aptly described Zádor as “the glue that held the family together." Eugene Zádor was proud of his career in music and pleased to have made a good living in his adopted country: “I came to America with three dollars in my pocket. Imagine if I would have had five dollars, or ten!” Eugene Zádor died on April 4, 1977 in Los Angeles. He was 82 years old. |
With appreciation, this biography is but excerpts taken from EugeneZador.com/biography.
EUGENE ZÁDOR was born in the village of Bátaszék, Hungary, on November 5, 1894. His mother, Pauline Bierman, came from a German settlement in Bosnia, and his father, Josef Zádor (orig. Zucker), likely from Czechoslovakia.
According to Eugene Zádor, his parents were married in Bosnia, where they stayed for a few years before they were traveling across Hungary by horse-drawn wagon when the horse died in Bátaszék; there they stayed until 1900. “At first my father was a teacher,” Zádor wrote. “Later, when the family grew to include eight children, of which I was the seventh, Father looked for a more lucrative business and opened a small leather factory.
"When I was six, we moved to the city of Pécs.” As he was walking home from school one day, young Zádor heard piano music coming from a neighbor’s house. He stood there listening for several hours in freezing weather. When he came down with pneumonia, his mother promised him anything if he would only recover. “And so it happened that the next day in our living room, there was a long, awful-sounding yellow piano with only five octaves, but it was a piano and it had keys. Not a bad attempt at blackmail for a six-year old.”
According to Eugene Zádor, his parents were married in Bosnia, where they stayed for a few years before they were traveling across Hungary by horse-drawn wagon when the horse died in Bátaszék; there they stayed until 1900. “At first my father was a teacher,” Zádor wrote. “Later, when the family grew to include eight children, of which I was the seventh, Father looked for a more lucrative business and opened a small leather factory.
"When I was six, we moved to the city of Pécs.” As he was walking home from school one day, young Zádor heard piano music coming from a neighbor’s house. He stood there listening for several hours in freezing weather. When he came down with pneumonia, his mother promised him anything if he would only recover. “And so it happened that the next day in our living room, there was a long, awful-sounding yellow piano with only five octaves, but it was a piano and it had keys. Not a bad attempt at blackmail for a six-year old.”