Concert title
Summer Festival: Lucerne Festival Academy 3
Date
Sat 22.08.2026
Start of the concert
21:00
Contributors
Name of the ensemble
Ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO)
Soloists
Participants of the Contemporary Conducting Program, conductors
program
Ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO) | Participants of the Contemporary Conducting Program | Zappa
Not quite as popular as the film Jaws, but similarly legendary, is "The Yellow Shark": Frank Zappa's last album. In 1992, shortly before his far too early death and already severely weakened by his cancer, the American avant-garde rocker joined forces with the contemporary music specialists of Ensemble Modern. For them, he wrote a virtuosic orchestral suite that combines newly created works with Zappa favorites. For example, with "Uncle Meat" or with the "G-Spot Tornado": Zappa had originally composed this celebration of vaginal orgasm at breakneck speed for the electronic Synclavier and actually considered it unplayable live. With "The Yellow Shark," a circle was completed, because before he rose to become a celebrated rock provocateur with his band The Mothers of Invention, Zappa had musically oriented himself more towards Igor Stravinsky and Edgard Varèse. Later, he collaborated with Pierre Boulez and with Kent Nagano and the London Symphony Orchestra. The Yellow Shark also gleefully blurs the lines between classical and popular music, blending experimental sounds with jazz phrases and the rhythmic drive of rock.
Performers:
Ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO)
, participants of the Contemporary Conducting Program, conductors.
Program:
Frank Zappa (1940–1993)
The Yellow Shark.
This concert has no intermission.
CHF 50.00.
Further information: Tickets available from March 24, 2026 | 10:00 a.m. (CET)
Not quite as popular as the film Jaws, but similarly legendary, is "The Yellow Shark": Frank Zappa's last album. In 1992, shortly before his far too early death and already severely weakened by his cancer, the American avant-garde rocker joined forces with the contemporary music specialists of Ensemble Modern. For them, he wrote a virtuosic orchestral suite that combines newly created works with Zappa favorites. For example, with "Uncle Meat" or with the "G-Spot Tornado": Zappa had originally composed this celebration of vaginal orgasm at breakneck speed for the electronic Synclavier and actually considered it unplayable live. With "The Yellow Shark," a circle was completed, because before he rose to become a celebrated rock provocateur with his band The Mothers of Invention, Zappa had musically oriented himself more towards Igor Stravinsky and Edgard Varèse. Later, he collaborated with Pierre Boulez and with Kent Nagano and the London Symphony Orchestra. The Yellow Shark also gleefully blurs the lines between classical and popular music, blending experimental sounds with jazz phrases and the rhythmic drive of rock.
Performers:
Ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO)
, participants of the Contemporary Conducting Program, conductors.
Program:
Frank Zappa (1940–1993)
The Yellow Shark.
This concert has no intermission.
CHF 50.00.
Further information: Tickets available from March 24, 2026 | 10:00 a.m. (CET)
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