Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Zappa, Frank
Label: Rykodisc Records
Released: 1984
Length: 37:29
Rating: 4/5
Contrary to popular belief, Francesco Zappa and Frank Zappa were not related, something the latter confirmed in his autobiography ‘The Real Frank Zappa Book’. When this album came out, plenty of people figured Francesco was just some witty invention, or at best a temporary Frank pseudonym.
Franceso Zapppa (born in Milan, active between 1763 and 1788) was an Italian Baroque composer and cellist about whom, sadly, little is known today. His body of work includes symphonies, sonatas and string accompaniments. Over his career he was mostly on the payroll of various Italian noblemen, and he also put on concerts abroad, in Germany and Poland, for instance. Francesco’s work is marked by a friendly, soothing and beautiful sound, as any listener can hear for themselves on this album. All the information about his music comes from Francesco’s own publications and manuscripts, which are still very rare.
“Francesco Zappa” is an album of Baroque chamber music, written in the 18th century by the aforementioned Italian composer, who had to wait more than two hundred years before someone decided to release his musical legacy in a modernized form on a digital format. That ‘someone’ was none other than the legendary Frank Zappa, for whom this was far from a first excursion into the world of chamber music.
The rediscovered body of work by this little-known, practically obscure Milanese composer, whom most classical music fans heard of for the first time through this release, was played in its entirety on the Synclavier, a special type of synthesizer, a highly sophisticated electronic keyboard instrument for its time, which let him simulate the sound of a whole orchestra. He first came into contact with Francesco’s legacy when David Ocker, a member of Frank’s backing band at the time, played him a theme by this forgotten composer. According to Ocker, he played it because Francesco was hugely popular among the students at his music college. It made a strong impression on Frank, since this was probably one of the few classical composers whose legacy he hadn’t been familiar with until then.
The main reason Frank decided to release the first digital recording of Francesco’s musical heritage was that no official release of his music had existed until then, and it could only be found in some Mormon library. After this discovery, he decided to set certain portions of Francesco’s output to music via the Synclavier. Of course, the curious and unusual fact that the two composers shared a surname, and practically a first name too, came in handy when promoting the album.
Frank very fittingly billed the album as Francesco’s “first digital recording in more than two hundred years”. Out of the manuscripts he’d found, he chose to perform Francesco’s Opus I trio for strings and Opus IV sonatas on the Synclavier. Every section of both opuses carries its original Italian title. The Baroque music, which the grand master played on the Synclavier in a damn refined way, is relaxing and pleasant from start to finish, soothing even in the most stressful situations, and the album flies by in a blink and is shamelessly addictive. This precious musical document testifies to the compositional greatness of Frank and Francesco alike. Francesco’s music proves that it passes the test of time with flying colors, while Frank once again confirmed the astonishing breadth of his musical genius when it came to trying things out and experimenting with different genres. “Francesco Zappa” is, for example, at least as far from “Hot Rats” as the Earth is from Saturn. Yet another completely atypical album in a long run of atypical albums from Frank’s treasury of musical artworks.
This bow from the most misunderstood composer of the 20th century to the most overlooked composer of the 18th is awfully easy on the ear and works on any occasion, in any company and in any place, unless, of course, you hang out with sworn enemies of Baroque music. Of everything Frank ever made, “Francesco Zappa” is by far the best fit for the ears of your average ‘Sunday lunch’ Slovenian family, from the grandkids all the way up to grandma and grandpa, who would otherwise have called the police long ago, and probably a few other people too, if you’d played any other piece of Frank’s legacy loudly and with the best of intentions. So this is the Frank album you can crank up in the car or at a birthday party as loud as you like, without worrying that your own parents will disinherit you or your partner will walk out on you over it.
Lineup
Frank Zappa – Synclavier
Production
Frank Zappa
Track list
1. Opus I: No. 1 First Movement: Andante
2. No. 1 2nd Movement: Allegro con brio
3. No. 2 1st Movement: Andantino
4. No. 2 2nd Movement: Minuetto grazioso
5. No. 3 1st Movement: Andantino
6. No. 3 2nd Movement: Presto
7. No. 4 1st Movement: Andante
8. No. 4 2nd Movement: Allegro
9. No. 5 2nd Movement: Minuetto grazioso
10. No. 6 1st Movement: Largo
11. No. 6 2nd Movement: Minuet
1. Opus IV: No. 1 1st Movement: Andantino
2. No. 1 2nd Movement: Allegro assai
3. No. 2 2nd Movement: Allegro assai
4. No. 3 1st Movement: Andante
5. No. 3 2nd Movement: Tempo di minuetto
6. No. 4 1st Movement: Minuetto
