Organization

Conductor

Brad Lubman

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Orchestra

Zappa Goes Large

London

United Kingdom

Barbican Centre

Barbican Concert Hall

Zappa Goes Large: Pedro's Dowry Zappa (+4 More)

Public

Private

Pedro's Dowry

Bob in Dacron and Sad Jane

Envelopes

Mo ‘N Herb’s Vacation

Strictly Genteel

Approved

For Frank Zappa, the symphony orchestra was the consummate vehicle for musical storytelling. Brad Lubman leads this live streamed evening culminating in Zappa’s acknowledged orchestral masterpieces.

In 1983, Zappa hired the London Symphony Orchestra and recorded 90 minutes of his freest, most imaginative and most wickedly entertaining music. Included on the album was the tear-away invention of 'Pedro’s Dowry', a frantic piece that obsesses over repeated fragments with all the primary-coloured brilliance of a cartoon soundtrack. This rampant hyperactivity finds the perfect counterbalance in 'Sad Jane', which is presented alongside its companion piece 'Bob in Dacron'.

'Mo ‘n Herb’s Vacation' is one of Zappa’s most accomplished large-scale orchestral works. Within its three-movement, theme and variations structure, beauty and aggression mingle, paradoxically embodying the sort of ‘sophisticated’ musical archetype Zappa loved to mock. The concert opens with music by Igor Stravinsky, one of Zappa’s principal musical inspirations.

English

Zappa Goes Large by Zappa, Frank, From (2022/2022), Conductor Brad Lubman, Barbican Centre, London, United Kingdom

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Ensemble

Program, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues