Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Label: Sanctuary Records
Released: 1971
Rating: 4/5
On “Pictures At An Exhibition,” the notorious prog rock trio Emerson, Lake & Palmer boldly, uncompromisingly and arrogantly gave a near-revolutionary reinterpretation of a classical work by the famous Russian composer and member of the elite “Mighty Handful,” Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky. And they did it at a time when classical music was still seen as something sacred and untouchable, especially compared to rock, which was only just beginning to get recognized as a serious genre. Mussorgsky wrote this piece for piano way back in 1874, and since then it has appeared in six different versions (and, of course, many more since this album came out), including this strange and wildly interesting take from ELP, which was the first to feature vocals. The main source of inspiration for the composition was a series of impressionist paintings by Mussorgsky’s friend Hartmann, to whom the piece is dedicated. Any classical fans who want to hear what the original orchestral version is supposed to sound like should track down the excellent 1986 recording by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the great Herbert von Karajan. Anyone who only knows the orchestral versions will most likely be completely shocked and bewildered hearing this “desecration” of the majestic classical piece at the hands of ELP, while those who have known the album for ages will just give a mischievous little smirk.
Keyboard wizard Keith Emerson was by then long past being a newcomer to his own often controversial, brutal and uncompromising rearrangements of classical works. In his earlier band The Nice he passionately “demonized” pieces by composers who had been untouchable until then, Mozart for instance. And he took particular delight in stirring up Leonard Bernstein’s “America.” That’s also where the most controversial moment of his career comes from. During a performance of that piece at the prestigious British venue The Royal Albert Hall, he burned an American flag in protest. The result was that he got banned from playing the hall for more than twenty years, while Bernstein tried in vain to get The Nice banned from releasing their version of his work in the US.
This performance of “Pictures At An Exhibition” comes from an ELP gig at London’s Theatre Royal in 1971. Fittingly, it’s soaked in a hugely live sound and the roaring reactions of the crowd. Apart from the majestic opening section, “Promenade,” this strange and fascinating interpretation has little to do with how Mussorgsky originally imagined his work, even though Emerson does use a few of the original motifs here and there, albeit heavily altered. The question naturally arises of whether it was really necessary back then for three young musicians to present such a piece in the context of rock music, to an audience that, for the most part, didn’t give much of a damn about the music of its “grandmas and grandpas.” ELP did it mainly because they were probably the only band at the time with all the necessary chops and technology for such a feat, and because they were the only ones arrogant enough to pull it off without caring much about what the critics thought. The early 70s were a glorious era of constant innovation for the world of rock, and ELP were always right at the front. What’s more, they usually stayed a step ahead of most other bands.
ELP’s greatest strengths in this performance shine brightest exactly where they bring the most of their own ideas. Take the vocal parts, for example, where singer, bassist and guitarist Greg Lake shines in full light. By then he was already an established master of romantic ballads, with compositions like “Lucky Man” (Emerson, Lake & Plamer, 1970) and “I Talk To The Wind” (In The Court Of The Crimson King, 1969), which he wrote back in King Crimson, under his belt. Most of the loveliest sections on the piece are his work, while Emerson’s supersonic keyboard expansions, especially on the synths and Hammonds with a palette of electronic effects that were innovative at the time, will thrill all the fans of this keyboard Hendrix’s wizardry. Carl Palmer on drums serves up some of the best performances of his entire career and gives the piece a compact feel all the way through, neatly stitching the individual sections together. If listeners don’t get hung up on the various orchestral versions, they can have a blast with this extremely lively and energetic performance, full of wonderful contrasts, unusual twists, rich impressions and the superb Lake poetry that this ELP rendition is crammed with. As already mentioned, the music is essentially a kind of concept collection of Mussorgsky’s impressions of Hartmann’s paintings, tied together by the central “Promenade” motif, which stands in for Mussorgsky himself walking from picture to picture as he looked at them in the exhibition. That’s a fairly important detail, since it gives the listener an easier picture of, and insight into, how ELP interpreted the composer’s original idea.
After the announcement and the crowd’s enthusiastic response, Emerson’s synthesizer, with its layered and majestic sound, ushers us into the opening section, “Promenade,” which is the closest of all the sections to the original, one of the most majestic motifs in the history of classical music. It’s followed by “The Gnome,” which features wonderful interplay between the keyboards and drums, especially where a thick layer of synthesizers in the background is joined by the energetic rhythm line of Lake’s bass and Palmer’s drums. All the way through, it recalls the run of an enraged gnome (a “little dwarf,” if you like), who, despite being small, is best avoided. Emerson’s masterful keyboard playing is, as always, hugely impressive, since the maestro keeps radically changing motifs and leaping from one tone to another. Lake’s vocals lead us into the third section, when the main motif from “Promenade” comes back. Next up is “The Sage,” an excellent Lake ballad that calms the mood after Emerson’s majestic synthesizer expansions. This section is deeply melancholic, melodic and serene. During it you could probably hear a drop of water fall in the middle of the hall while Lake delivers it through his clear tenor. His acoustic guitar melody and the lyrics also add up to a great, soothing atmosphere.
Emerson then hits us again with his synthesizer “pyrotechnics,” which he shows off at the start of the section “The Old Castle.” Here he sets the hall on fire with his whirlwind synth passages, then slows the tempo a bit and steers it into somewhat gentler waters, until it all tips over into a very interesting section called “Blues Variation,” where ELP deliver a proper bouncy instrumental groove and blues packed with plenty of funky parts on Hammond and synth. Then we return to the Russian idyll as the central “Promenade” motif repeats and they head toward the next section (picture), “The Hut Of Baba Yaga,” dedicated to Baba Yaga, the wicked and ugly witch from Slavic mythology who lived in a giant bird-legged hut and gnawed on human bones there. Fittingly, it’s a fast and spirited section, where intense bass and percussion back fiery, polished Hammond passages. After a while it tips over into the section “The Curse Of Baba Yaga,” which is their completely original creation and features some quite electronic-sounding synthesizers wrapped around the bass. Then comes Lake’s fiercely spirited, almost maniacal singing, laid over a frenetic instrumental section. After that it all tips back into the instrumental “The Hut Of Baba Yaga.” That’s followed by the closing, majestic and triumphant section “The Great Gates Of Kiev,” where Lake’s singing shines especially bright, giving the section a downright hymn-like feel. Emerson’s grand and deep layer of Hammonds sounds incredibly lush, and its sound slightly evokes the ringing of bells. At the end he jumps in with deep, distorted synths too. The closing, triumphant peak is one of the best lines Lake ever wrote and sang: “There’s no end to my life, no beginning to my death. Death is life…..”.
When it ends, the crowd erupts into unbelievable euphoria and demands an encore right away. The band takes up the challenge in a flash and carries on with their takes on Russian classics. This time they picked Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker (“Nutrocker,” sometimes also called “Nut Rocker”). ELP turn it into an almost perfect honky tonk creation, packed with incredible energy and an almost danceable rhythm. When it’s over, you can hear the crowd shouting “more, more…” for a long time, still unsatisfied. Can’t blame them, because the whole performance flies by incredibly fast, even a little too fast, which is its main weakness.
Besides the noticeably improved sound, the reissue also brings a studio version of “Pictures At An Exhibition,” which originally came out as a bonus track on their last, negligible and extremely weak studio album, “In The Hot Seat (1994). Even though it’s performed in a very similar way, in my opinion it can’t compete with the original live version, where the band sounds far more convincing, plus the different energy of the “live” sound and the completely different sound of the modern keyboards add their own flavor. What drags it down a bit is mainly Lake’s vocals, which by then had lost most of their former power, energy and expressiveness. Still, any fan of the band will surely enjoy listening to it.
“Pictures At An Exhibition,” which came out right after the magnificent masterpiece “Tarkus” (1971) as an extra live album for all the loyal fans, and at a noticeably lower price (that bonus is long gone, of course, so music enthusiasts who don’t have the album in their collection shouldn’t get their hopes up too soon), delivers plenty of pleasure, especially to anyone who loves both classical music and progressive rock. Some of them will even enjoy it more than all of its orchestral versions, while classical purists will be appalled at the very idea of the “desecration” of their “sacred relic” before they’ve even heard the album. Fans of the band will, I reckon, agree among themselves that with their fearless experiment of fusing classical and rock, ELP created an excellent interpretation of this classical work and brought “serious” music closer to generations of rock lovers. “Pictures At An Exhibition” is a true exhibition of all the musical talents of what was then surely the most notorious band in the world of progressive rock. Who knows, maybe the great Modest himself would have enjoyed their interpretation and enthusiastically shaken their hands, had he still been alive.
Line-up
Keith Emerson – keyboards
Greg Lake – vocals, bass guitar, guitar
Carl Palmer – drums, percussion
Production
Greg Lake
Track list
1.) Pictures At An Exhibition:
a. Promenade
b. The Gnome
c. Promenade
d. The Sage
e. The Old Castle
f. Blues Variations
g. Promenade
h. The Hut Of Baba Yaga
i. The Curse Of Baba Yaga
j. The Hut Of Baba Yaga
k. The Great Gates Of Kiev
l. The End – Nutrocker
Album length: 37:21
Bonus tracks from the reissue (2004):
1. Pictures at an Exhibition (studio)
