This album has songs by an orchestra and a few by Zappa on his Synclavier. Great album and well worth the time.

Okay,

This is a cd of half orchestration from an actual orchestra, and half orchestration from a synclavier... but the highlight for me is an orchestration from a synclavier called Girl in the magnesium dress. quite an accomplishment. I love it. worth the price of admission alone. NO disrespect to Boulez but his renditions of FZ work needs a lot of help.. the work is great, but as another reviewer noted, Boulez didn't do it justice. Boulez might not 'get it'

wonderful zappa album. perfect stranger is a great 12 minute piece, naval aviation in art is a fleshed out version of the orchestral favorites tune, and it is gorgeous. duprees paradise is yummy and the synclavier stuff rules. girl in magnesium dress takes advantage of the different sounds available. Jonestown is a haunting one, which refers to the mass suicide thing

The performances by Boulez' group, Ensemble Intercontemporain, sound as though they were prepared about an hour before they were recorded. They mostly come of sounding sloppy and misguided, but only occassionly get the 'visceral' energy needed from the players to play these pieces. This doesn't suprise me, as I would find it hard to believe that Boulez actually enjoys Zappa's music. The compositions are wonderful--and that is why I can give it 3 stars--but it is time to get the chamber orchestra pieces recorded again! Boulez does NOT do it justice.

I always have trouble with his synclavier work. Nice in this case are the references to band versions, and the title track (classical) is great.