Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Pictures at an Exhibition

THE REVIEW

It can be said without mincing words that, when Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky composed his last creation in 1874, he could not have imagined that his work would be revisited by one of the most successful bands in the world of progressive rock.

Thanks are due to Greg Lake, who wrote all the lyrics that rise above the original score, "Pictures at an Exhibition", evolved from being a performance piece to a skillfully constructed adaptation. Without this input, it would have simply been an expanded reinterpretation of the original score played three pieces at a time.

"When we first played "Pictures" live, many were disgusted by the fact that we had the nerve to create our own version of a well-known classical work" says Lake "others felt we did an excellent job with the arrangements and it is a work I'm proud to have been involved with".

"Pictures" was a cycle of ten wonderfully assembled pieces for which a tour of an exhibition of paintings by Victor Hartmann, a friend of the Russian composer, was imagined. It was the popular 1922 orchestration conducted by Ravel that captured Keith Emerson's attention when he attended a performance at the Royal Festival Hall in 1970.

Emerson had shortly before left the Nice; Lake had left King Crimson.

"When Keith played me "Pictures", I was immediately struck by the possibilities the piece offered in the context of a rock trio" says Lake, who was so enthusiastic that he picked up his guitar and the pair immediately began working on the arrangement of "Promenade", which opens "Pictures" and is a recurring theme within it.

The drummer Carl Palmer comes from Atomic Rooster. "The first real writing process as a group really began when we met Carl" recalls Lake "things really started to move towards the breakthrough". Soon after forming, ELP secured a record contract, management, and live concert offers before producing any original material.

Initially, "Pictures" was used exclusively as a warm-up exercise, as Palmer admits: "Gradually we learned the entire piece. It's amazing how it then became an integral part of the show".

All three musicians had a classical training. They were different from other bands, past and contemporary: they hadn't played Woodstock and consequently had no blues influences. However, they introduced themselves at the Isle of Wight festival, achieving good success.

After their self-titled debut album and "Tarkus", ELP finally released "Pictures" as a live album at the end of 1971, dating back to March 26th of the same year.

A beautiful revisitation of Mussorgsky's masterpiece! Greg Lake demonstrates his lyrical genius in the beautiful acoustic/vocal duet in "The Sage" with his ethereal and sentimental voice. Another climax is "The Great Gates of Kiev" which concludes with the famous final phrase "Life is Death".

This was the sound of the three virtuosos with their propensity for risk and their enterprise.

"It's not that ELP are great musicians" observes Lake "it's the chemistry within the band that really matters". What can I say!? For me, ELP have both qualities: great musicians with a great chemistry among them.