LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA VOL. I & II

When Rykodisk remixed and reissued Frank Zappa's entire catalog after his death, they chose to couple the two London Symphony Orchestra albums together in this double CD package. And they did a nice job with them. Aside from the remix, that sounds a bit better than the Volume 1 single disk, they reordered the pieces so that companion pieces, Bob In Dacron and Sad Jane are sequential, and the two "200 Motels" based pieces are also in together.

The music mostly has as air of Stravinsky, aklthough the style is all Zappa. A few songs, the "200 Motels" pieces, Bogus Pomp and Strictly Genteel and Envelopes are re-orchestrated pieces that appear on other albums, and occasionally you can hear flashes from other well known Zappa songs (for example: there is a distinct line from Fembot In A Wet T-Shirt that pops up in the first and third movements of Mo 'N Herb's Vacation.

This isn't the best of Frank's orchestral albums, but it is a fine classical album.