Eötvös conducted works by Zappa, including The Black Page, as well as his own Psalm 151, a tribute to Zappa after his death in 1993.
Eötvös premiered two of his most recent compositions at the festival: Seven, a tribute to the seven astronauts who died aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 2003, and IMA, a continuation of the composer's piece Atlantis, from 1995. Atlantis uses excerpts from Gebet, by the German poet Gerhard Rühm, and Silent Music, a poem by the Hungarian Sándor Weöres.
Eötvös met Zappa in 1992, when Ensemble Moderne undertook a recording of works by Edgar Varése at the Warner Brothers studios in Hollywood.
"Zappa was the director. I was a Zappa fan. The recordings were done only a few months before his death, in the presence of conductor Nicolas Slonimsky. We formed a fantastic trio," Eötvös said in Paris.
Recordings made at the three-day free festival will be broadcast on France Musique from December 21.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
