Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss (August 15, 1922 - February 1, 2009) was a German-American composer, pianist and conductor.
Born in Germany, he and his family moved to Paris in 1933 to avoid Nazi persecution, moving to the United States in 1937. Foss was professor of music at the University of California in L.A. and at Boston University. Foss was also music director of the Ojai Music Festival (1961-1987), Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (1963-1970), Brooklyn Philharmonic (1971-1988), Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (1972-1976) and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (1981-1986).
Frank Zappa
On 6 September 1972 [1] Frank Zappa was invited by Lukas Foss to help out with a performance of Igor Stravinsky's L'Histoire Du Soldat at the Hollywood Bowl. Foss originally asked Zappa to play The Devil, but Zappa later changed his mind and did the narration instead. [2] Foss conducted the performance. The soldier was played by Tim Buckley, the Devil by Ernest Fleischmann. [3]
"The first post-wheelchair appearance was as a reciter, in a performance of Stravinsky's L'Histoire Du Soldat at the Hollywood Bowl, conducted by Lukas Foss."
Zappa about Lukas Foss
"I would probably tend to agree with Lukas Foss's evaluation of The Rite Of Spring although it's one of my favorite pieces, he feels that it's sort of like Bigger and Better Rimsky-Korsakov. In a way it is. It's more than that, but I think that the L'Histoire Du Soldat has probably got a lot more going for it in terms of real innovation and its rhythmic vitality; interesting sonorities that just didn't exist in chamber music prior to that time." - Frank Zappa, Martin Perlich interviews FZ, KMET, Los Angeles, 1972. [4]
