Tracks
- Promenade
- The Gnome
- Promenade
- The Sage
- The Old Castle
- Blues Variation
- Promenade
- The Hut of Baba Yaga
- The Curse of Baba Yaga
- The Hut of Baba Yaga
- The Great Gates of Kiev/The End
- Nut Rocker
Pictures at an Exhibition is a daring album. The music is progressive rock. Emerson, Lake & Palmer perform an abridged version of the Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures of an Exhibition. The trio includes weave their own material into the piece.
I'm really impressed by this album. Any rock band that performs a substantial portion of classical music in concert has a set or brass balls for there are just too many ways that it can fail. The music could be too esoteric, modern instruments may not sound appropriate or the band may just not have the technical skill to adapt the piece.
At first I had no idea what the band was performing and so the album seemed pretentious, self-indulgent and gratuitous. (Perhaps that is why they choose to perform classical pieces.) However, once I figured out what was going on, it all made sense and my opinion of it completely changed.
I think this album is worth listening to, but I can see that this might be more of a novelty album to most people. I do think it belongs on the 1001 Albums list. There just aren't many popular music groups performing classical music. Also, Keith Emerson must be the one responsible for keyboard instruments supplanting the guitar as the choice for lead instrument in a vast number of prog rock bands—this album is serious evidence of that.
All the songs sound great. I think the second half—the Baba Yaga suite—is the more interesting part of the album.
★★★★★★★★★★
No comments:
Post a Comment