Description
Emerson, Lake & Palmer Boldly Reimagine Mussorgskys Signature Suite on Pictures at an Exhibition: 1971 Live Album is a Groundbreaking Fusion of Classical and Prog-Rock Elements, Features Extraordinary Playing.
Mastered at MoFis California studio and housed in mini-LP-style packaging, Mobile Fidelitys numbered-edition hybrid SACD of Tarkus presents the gold-certified effort in audiophile sound. Clear, dynamic, and balanced, it honors the fastidious approaches that informed the playing and recording of the record. In sum, this collectible reissue throws open the window on the tonal depth and virtuosic musicianship on display.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer were so committed to their visionary interpretation of Modest Mussorgskys Pictures at an Exhibition that the group recorded it twice. Unsatisfied with the quality of what was supposed to serve as the take for a concert album, ELP booked a different venue to stage another show and paid for production out of their own pocket. Following hours of rehearsals and sound checks, ELP delivered a performance for the ages. Originally issued five months after the bands sophomore LP Tarkus, Pictures at an Exhibition landed in the Billboard Top Ten and became a linchpin of the prog-rock canon.
Mastered at Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs California studio, housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, the fabled album comes to life with spectacular dimensionality, breadth, and detail on this numbered-edition 180g 33RPM LP. Featuring dead-quiet surfaces, it doubles as an admission ticket that never expires to the bands March 26, 1971 date at Newcastle City Hall. The primary difference from not being there in person? The levels of clarity, presence, and separation are such that youll immediately be grateful nobody is impeding your view or gabbing beside you as you soak in one of the most celebrated crossover experiments in history.
Bolstered by three original additions to the suite and a Nutrocker encore thats a playful rock n roll take on Tchaikovskys Nutcracker, Pictures at an Exhibition simultaneously blurs lines between genres and epitomizes the trios virtuosity and verve. Adopting four of the original 10 parts and the two transitory promenade sections, the effort surges with energy, cohesiveness, and extraordinary musicianship. This aural tour of works displayed at a St. Petersburg academy by painter Viktor Hartmann is at once celebratory, theatrical, moody, and glorious.
Fans who heard it broadcast in its entirety on a New York radio station immediately realized its merits. Their loud clamor for an official release Atlantic Records had delayed the album due to disagreements with the band regarding how it would be promoted and priced ultimately led to Pictures at an Exhibition streeting in November 1971, further distinguished by William Neals artwork and his depictions of oil paintings with imagery connected to ELP.
Incorporating four of the 10 movements featured in Mussorgskys original suite as well as the recurring Promenade theme, ELPs version of the 1874 composition begins, as it should, with remarkable fanfare. Emerson commences with a pipe organ solo that threatens to make your internal organs vibrate. The fireworks have begun. Fuzz bass, Moog synthesizer, and Hammond organ lay the foundation for the tension-rife The Gnome and, minutes later, Greg Lake steers the procession in a different direction via tender acoustic-guitar patterns on the medieval-themed The Sage. ELP is feeling it. And how.
The trio casts The Old Castle as a fast-tempo romp, cedes the spotlight to Emerson on Blues Variation, and ups the pace and chase during The Hut of Baba Yaga. ELP tint The Curse of Baba Yaba with an aptly threatening atmosphere, a trait Palmer underscores with a menacing beat and Emerson increases with his wailing-siren Moog passages. Firing on all proverbial cylinders, the collective finishes its Mussorgsky interpretation with The Great Gates of Kiev, an ecstatic gesture that exudes fulfillment, joy, and relief. What a rush.
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