In the latter stages of his career, Frank Zappa had a mission:
to prove that he was a composer, not merely a rock musician. He had
actually made a valid argument for this view with the release of
Orchestral Favorites, even if it had been pretty much
overlooked.
Yet in his first “official” effort with a symphony orchestra,
London Symphony Orchestra, Zappa’s music comes off as more
disjointed than I think he would have liked, and the end result is
far weaker than it should have been. (There were, at one time, two
different releases of music from these sessions, which have since
been combined into one set. This CD release took the best from both
releases – and happens to be the version I own.)
Admittedly never completely satisfied with the results from
these sessions, Zappa’s demand for perfection can be heard, even if
the mistakes that so infuriated Zappa are hard to hear by the
common listener. The one true masterpiece on this disc, “Bogus
Pomp,” revisits the version heard on
Orchestral Favorites and gives it an additional infusion of
energy and life – so much so that one wishes that this had been on
200 Motels, where the bulk of the material is culled from.
It is in this performance, conducted by Kent Nagano, that Zappa’s
music feels most at home.
If only the remainder of the material had even half of that
strength. The three movements of “Mo & Herb’s Vacation” are a
cacophonous mess, continuing the musical free-association that
Zappa had perfected with his rock bands. The problem is that
classical instrumentation does not adapt as well, and while this
may be more in the vein of Zappa’s true musical idols like Varese,
it’s hell on the listener as they try to make some sense out of the
orchestral mass that hits them in the face. “Sad Jane” is a bit of
an improvement, but doesn’t feel like the strongest way to open up
the disc and to establish the foundation of Zappa as a
composer.
This isn’t to say that Zappa’s work didn’t belong in a symphonic
setting – a good smattering of his early work had an orchestral
feel, even going back as far as
Lumpy Gravy and
Uncle Meat. Perhaps it was the selections that did
London Symphony Orchestra in; I’d have loved to have heard a
track like “Sofa No. 1” performed in an orchestral setting, and
think it would have been a natural fit. Alas, this isn’t to be.
Zappa’s fascination with the symphonic world was by no means
complete – yet another disc, this one with Pierre Boulez holding
the baton, was just on the horizon – but there are better examples
on the market than
London Symphony Orchestra that show Zappa’s strengths as a
composer. Sadly, this one is just not it.
2005 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault.” All rights
reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of the
Zappa Family Trust / record label, and is used for informational
purposes only.
