London Symphony Orchestra Norristown PA

London Symphony Orchestra

Frank Zappa

Rykodisc, 1983

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 09/16/2005

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 hadactually made a valid argument for this view with the release of Orchestral Favorites, even if it had been pretty muchoverlooked.

Yet in his first "official" effort with a symphony orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Zappa's music comes off as moredisjointed than I think he would have liked, and the end result isfar weaker than it should have been. (There were, at one time, twodifferent releases of music from these sessions, which have sincebeen combined into one set. This CD release took the best from bothreleases - and happens to be the version I own.)

Admittedly never completely satisfied with the results fromthese sessions, Zappa's demand for perfection can be heard, even ifthe mistakes that so infuriated Zappa are hard to hear by thecommon listener. The one true masterpiece on this disc, "BogusPomp," revisits the version heard on Orchestral Favorites and gives it an additional infusion ofenergy 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'smusic feels most at home.

If only the remainder of the material had even half of thatstrength. The three movements of "Mo & Herb's Vacation" are acacophonous mess, continuing the musical free-association thatZappa had perfected with his rock bands. The problem is thatclassical instrumentation does not adapt as well, and while thismay 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 theorchestral mass that hits them in the face. "Sad Jane" is a bit ofan improvement, but doesn't feel like the strongest way to open upthe disc and to establish the foundation of Zappa as acomposer.