Summer-Festival: Lucerne Festival Academy 3
Overview
Intro
Ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO) | Participants in the Contemporary-Conducting Program | Zappa
Not quite as famous as the film Jaws but every bit as legendary: The Yellow Shark, Frank Zappa’s final album. In 1992, shortly before his far-too-early death and already visibly weakened by cancer, the American avant-garde rock maverick joined forces with the new music specialists from the Ensemble Modern. For them he wrote a virtuosic orchestral suite that blends newly created pieces with Zappa favorites like Uncle Meat and G-Spot Tornado. That last work — a whirlwind celebration of the vaginal orgasm — was originally composed for the electronic Synclavier and long thought to be unplayable. In a way, The Yellow Shark brought Zappa’s musical life full circle: before rising to fame as a provocative rock icon with The Mothers of Invention, he had looked more to Igor Stravinsky and Edgard Varèse for inspiration. He later collaborated with Pierre Boulez as well as Kent Nagano and the London Symphony Orchestra. The Yellow Shark also gleefully tears down the wall between “high” and “popular” music, mixing experimental sounds with jazz inflections and the rhythmic drive of rock.
Performers:
Ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO)
Participants in the Contemporary-Conducting Program, conductors
Program:
Frank Zappa (1940–1993)
The Yellow Shark
This concert has no intermission.
| Contact address |
Lucerne Festival
Hirschmattstrasse 13 6003 Luzern +41 (0)41 226 44 00 info@lucernefestival.ch +41 (0)41 226 44 60 |
|---|---|
| Location |
KKL Luzern Luzerner Saal Europaplatz 1 6005 Luzern Switzerland |
| Event Homepage | https://www.lucernefestival.ch/de/programm/ensemble-des-lucerne-festival-contemporary-orchestra-lfco-teilnehmerinnen-des-contemporary-conducting-program/2375 |
| Price |
CHF 50.00
|
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Event dates
- 22 August 2026
Tickets as from 24.03.2026 | 10 am (CET)