Prom 25 - 31.07.13: Zappa – The Adventures of Greggery Peccary

[Tapiola]

The 'original' Studio Tan LP release was unauthorised by the composer, and was made without the Dolby calibration tapes (which Zappa retained). From the start, Zappa intended the recording to be part of the 4 LP Läther project. The eventual CD release with that title was a sort of reconstruction of the original concept. A romping satirical fantasy, if not his finest work. I would still have preferred that the Glass was dropped fro the programme and Greggory had been preceded by Billy the Mountain.

Interesting extra info, Bryn

[PJPJ]

If anyone knows these, I'd be very grateful for tempo markings, no of movements etc for the Glass 10.

[Bryn]

If anyone knows these, I'd be very grateful for tempo markings, no of movements etc for the Glass 10.

1 crotchet = 138
2 crotchet = 104
3 crotchet = 152
4 crotchet = 120
5 crotchet = 132

(from the programme booklet).

[PJPJ]

Thanks, Bryn!

[HighlandDougie]

A romping satirical fantasy, if not his finest work.

And very enjoyable (unlike the preceding work)

[bluestateprommer]

Very good work from NC and the Aurora Orchestra, in a very interesting mixed-bag of a program that, if it were to be done on this side of the pond, could only be done in only a very few cities, such as NYC, SF or LA, or perhaps the MusicNOW programs in Chicago. That aside, I'm with the general consensus on the Philip Glass, as it's more of the same that he's been producing for years and years now, although the slow movement did actually bring in something resembling variety. Unfortunately, PG relapsed to standard note-spinning form not long after. It's a shame that Glass, and Steve Reich for that matter, have become prisoners of their own latter-day stylistic mannerisms in their golden years, but they both have audiences willing to lap it all up.

It was also drolly amusing and appropriate to hear both Mitch Benn and Christopher Purves "do American" in the Frank Zappa work, as given the nature of the work, only American accents will do there, in much the same way that American accents wouldn't work nearly as well with Monty Python sketches. 5 stars to the Proms management for putting together a program like this.