Frank Zappa Perfect Stranger: Boulez Conducts Zappa CD

Tracks 1, 2 & 4 are performed by the Ensemble InterContemporain, conducted by Pierre Boulez. Tracks 3, 5, 6 & 7 are performed by The Barking Pumpkin Digital Gratification Consort.
The Ensemble InterContemporain includes: Pierre Boulez (conductor); Lawrence Beauregard, Sophie Cherrier (flute); Lazlo Hadady, Didier Pateau (oboe); Alain Damiens, Paul Meyer (clarinet); Jean-Marie Lamothe (bassoon); Antoine Cure, Jean-Jacques Gaudon (trumpet); Jerome Naulais, Benny Sluchin (trombone); Gerard Buquet (tuba); Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Alain Neveux (piano); Frederic Stochl (acoustic bass); Vincent Bauer, Michel Cerutti, Daniel Ciampolini (percussion).
Ensemble InterContemporain recorded at Ircam, Paris, France on Janurary 10-11, 1984. Includes liner notes by Frank Zappa.
Frank Zappa often complained about how difficult it was to find a classical orchestra that would actually take the time to learn the scores it is presented and try its best to do a honorable job when it comes to contemporary composition. Late in his career, he found such a group of musicians, the Ensemble Modern (which recorded The Yellow Shark), but in the mid-'80s Pierre Boulez' Ensemble InterContemporain recorded a worthy session of material, released in August 1984 on EMI's classical imprint, Angel, as The Perfect Stranger. The title track was commissioned by Boulez, and sees the composer coming back to the days of 200 Motels, both in terms of style (the music is very programmatic) and references (at the center of the piece is the vacuum cleaner found in the aforementioned movie and in the cover artwork of the album Chunga's Revenge). "Naval Aviation in Art?" and "Dupree's Paradise," the latter an old rock piece from 1973 rearranged for orchestra, are also performed by Boulez' ensemble. The remaining four tracks are credited to "The Barking Pumpkin Digital Gratification Consort" -- i.e., Zappa's Synclavier, a keyboard computer. "Outside Now, Again" and "Jonestown" are among the darkest, moodiest pieces of computer music the man has written. The composer remixed the album in 1992 and a moved a couple of tracks around. Compared to the London Symphony Orchestra sessions, The Perfect Stranger is a much stronger album with a better, rehearsed ensemble. Still, those not interested in the man's so-called serious music should steer clear of it. ~ François Couture
Half of THE PERFECT STRANGER features works by Frank Zappa conducted by Pierre Boulez utilizing his Ensemble Intercontemporain orchestra and recorded in Paris. The other half is Zappa himself under the moniker of the Barking Pumpkin Digital Gratification Consort. He refers to the album in its entirety as seven dance pieces. Each of these instrumental pieces embodies an accompanying story and occasional sound effects (or simply non-traditional instrumentation). These works are modern in a way which is decidedly not modern today; that is to say, they celebrate notions of atonality, angularity and episodic construction which resonate with the heady experimentation of the first few decades of the twentieth century. Edgar Varese, Charles Ives, and even bits of Stravinsky clearly found a comfortable home in Frank Zappa's heart and mind.