Review Summary: A superb performance of a brilliant piece from 3 very talented musicians.
Take a fantastic piece of music by one of Russia’s greatest romantic composers and 3 of the best rock musicians of the 20th century, put them together and you are inevitably going to end up with an outstanding performance. Emerson, Lake and Palmer's 1971 Live album, Pictures at an Exhibition, more than lives up to this expectation.
From the initial ‘Promenade’, played on the lovely pipe organ at Newcastle City Hall, to the final energetic ‘Nutrocker’. ELP show off their unquestionable talents in a fabulous display of prog at it’s finest.
Obviously, like much of ELP’s work, the big musical driving force is of course the flamboyant and highly skilled Keith Emerson. His versatility as a keyboardist really shows in this performance with precise well executed organ lines, such as in ‘Promenade’; fast energetic moog melodies such as those found in ‘The Old Castle’ and of course the infamous thrashing of the Hammond L-100.
This epic concert is, however, far from a one-man show. Greg Lake gives us some superb vocal contributions, perhaps most noticeably on ‘The sage’, as well as some intricate guitar playing and punchy driving baselines. Also credit is due to Lake for his brave, and bold, lyrical additions to Mussorgsky’s masterpiece. He does an impeccable job with no forced lines and a top quality performance.
And who could forget the backbone of the band the magnificent Carl Palmer. Like the others his versatility shines through, as does his unique, heavily jazz influenced drumming style. Dynamically he is impeccable, every crescendo and diminuendo is perfectly executed and his seamless metric changes keep the piece driving forward.
The arrangement itself is both bold, with heavily altered and completely new sections, and well put together. Each instrument gets a chance with the key motifs and you get the feeling that even Mussorgsky himself may secretly have enjoyed the performance. It might not be the orchestral masterpiece of Maurice Ravel or the blissful intricacy of the original, but it is certainly up there as one of the greatest arrangements and a benchmark and superb example of rock-classical fusion.
