FRANK ZAPPA: “THE YELLOW SHARK.” Ensemble Modern,...

FRANK ZAPPA: “THE YELLOW SHARK.” Ensemble Modern, conducted by Peter Rundel. Barking Pumpkin R2 71600. Beyond and apart from his occasional reputation as a willful, antisocial maverick with a love of bad manners, the recently deceased Frank Zappa maintained a long--and mostly unrequited--love affair with the serious 20th-Century music tradition. The fascinating fruits of Zappa’s orchestral labors are ample on “The Yellow Shark,” a suite performed with affectionate precision and stylistic elasticity by the Ensemble Modern. Virtuosic irreverence and post-serial introspection make for perfect bedfellows on this ambitious project, where reference points include Weill, Berg, Varese and Zappa’s own neo-Dada. A powerful discographic swan song.