Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger
Occupation
- Pierre Boulez - Conductor
- Ensemble intercontemporain
- Frank Zappa - Synclavier
Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger is an album that was co-created by French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez and the musician Frank Zappa. It was published in 1984. Boulez played one with the ensemble intercontemporain three pieces, four more compositions realized Zappa on the Synclavier. All the pieces were composed by Frank Zappa.
Genesis
Zappa had already acquired the age of seventeen the album Le marteau sans maître Pierre Boulez, which was recorded under the direction of Robert Craft and compared it with the score later. On June 11, 1980, Boulez as a spectator at a concert of Zappa in the Palais des Sports, Paris, present; Zappa and demonstrated on this occasion the new technical effect devices, which he used for his concerts. A few months later sent Zappa Boulez grade material connected with the inquiry whether Boulez could conduct these pieces. Boulez offered Zappa to rehearse with the 28- member ensemble intercontemporain some pieces and invited by Zappa a new composition, which is tailored to this ensemble. Zappa composed the piece The Perfect Stranger, which premiered at a concert on 9 January 1984 at the Théâtre de la Ville by the ensemble. Moreover, the additional pieces Dupree 's Paradise and Naval Aviation in Art were? given. These three compositions were then recorded in the studio of the IRCAM at the Centre Pompidou and form the first two and the fourth piece Boulez Conducts Zappa Album: The Perfect Stranger.
Title list
Album art and liner notes
Boulez Conducts Zappa Album Cover: The Perfect Stranger External links to copyrighted content.
- Front of the cover on zappa.com
The album cover consists of a framed picture of Donald Roller Wilson, that a white dog in girl dress is with sunglasses sitting at a table with the remains of a meal on a high chair. On the right side is in large, round font Boulez Conducts Zappa, including slightly smaller The Perfect Stranger. As a performer of chamber music, the ensemble intercontemporain and the Barking Pumpkin Digital Gratification Consort will be named in smaller, but each in the same font size. The latter name is employed by Zappa for four of the title Synclavier.
On the back of a photograph of Pierre Boulez is shown that comes from Don Hunstein. Boulez is reported as a conductor, Zappa in the same font size as a producer. The liner notes are held in four different languages in the edition of 1992. The text is titled " The Seven Dances of this album - each composed of sound effects - each tell a story. The style is old-fashioned grotesque. "
Reception
The critic for European classical music John Rockwell of the New York Times looked into the album the meeting of two completely different cultures, both in terms of Boulez and Zappa, as well as in relation to their followers. Boulez had the pieces unadulterated listed as Kent Nagano, it had succeeded with Zappa's orchestral pieces on the album London Symphony Orchestra. However, Rockwell criticized Zappa's stance as a "musical comedian " in relation to the chosen title and in the liner notes described scenarios of the individual pieces. He raises the question whether these scenarios, the basis of " sound poems " were that manifest themselves in the pieces or whether they were subsequently designed for the amusement of their own fans or as " ironic mask ".
Rockwell emphasizes the seductive color of the acoustic recordings and praises the good fusion of orchestral instruments with electronic sounds. The tendency to provide the actual tonal expression of music with some dissonance thrown in, he sees parallels with the jazz-rock. He speculates that Boulez wanted to insult other American composers of modern music, he preferred them by Zappa. He concludes his review with the remark that it took a foreigner to bring out the significance of the musical maverick Zappa.
Music journalist Barry Miles sees in The Perfect Stranger is a good example of that Zappa's music was based on rewritten for musical instruments speech patterns. In addition, Boulez had the pieces given a new meaning to what they made very popular with the public. The fact that four of the tracks were purely electronically recorded with the Synclavier and thus very mechanical sounding, but the album was unbalanced.