PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

"Pictures At An Exhibition" is a collection of some shows Emerson Lake and Palmer have played in 1971. It is strongly based on Modest Mussorgsky's work of the same title, which he wrote for his close friend who had passed away. Mussorgsky's "Pictures At An Exhibition" is basically a very long ten movemental suite, a collection of tales, traditions and folk motives of eastern Europe. It is worth admiring how a 19th century piano suite has been transcribed for three instruments to create a consistant and more importantly a natural-sounding rock arangement! They featured some other tracks, not from the original work of the composer just to spice things up! On the whole album, we can hear Keith Emerson's wizard-like, well-trained, intelectual-sounding keyboard playing, characterized by a very strong, technical know-how. All of this supported by a groovin' rhythm section from Greg Lake and Carl Palmer. Mussorgsky's piece "The Old Castle" made into an upbeat tempo, Moog rocker quickly turns into band's own "Blues Variations", Emerson's tribute to jazz organ greats such as Jimmy Smith or Brother Jack McDuff. This is probably my favorite part of the album, showing a true essence of progressive rock! Another incredibly enjoyable pieces are "The Hut of Baba Yaga", "The Great Gates of Kiev", "Promenade" and "The Gnome". Most tracks are instrumental, in other cases Greg Lake's beautiful, melodic voice brings out the best of what could be sang. The album closes with "Nutrocker", a bluesy redux of Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" (worth mentioning, "Nutrocker" isn't their composition), which showcases Emerson's Chicago blues abilities on an odd-sounding Hofner Clavinet.

Overall, I think this is a must-have for every prog nut, this album is a great listening experience.

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