Pictures at an Exhibition (Emerson, Lake & Palmer album)


Pictures at an Exhibition is a live album by the English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in November 1971 on Island Records. It is a recording of the band's arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky, performed live at Newcastle City Hall on 26 March 1971. Keith Emerson wished to arrange the piece after seeing an orchestral performance of it several years before. He bought a copy of the score, and pitched the idea to Greg Lake and Carl Palmer, who agreed to adapt it.
Pictures at an Exhibition went to number 3 on the UK Albums Chart and number 10 on the US Billboard 200. In 2001, it was reissued as a remastered edition that included a studio version of the piece.

Recording

The original live album was recorded at Newcastle City Hall in North East England. The opening track of the album was played on a Harrison & Harrison pipe organ which was installed in the City Hall in 1928. The organ console is some way above stage level, at the top of a stepped terrace used for choral performances. The drum roll connecting the opening track to the next served to cover Emerson's dash back down to the stage.
Due to management conflicts, the recording was not released until after Tarkus, their second studio album. The record company was reluctant to release a classical suite as an album, and insisted it be released on their classical music label instead. Fearing that this would lead to poor sales, ELP instead decided to shelve the work. After the success of their second album, however, the label agreed to release Pictures as a budget live album.
There was also a video made of a different live performance. This had a limited theatrical release in June 1972, and a remastered DVD release with Dolby Surround Sound in 2000. Being a live album, sometimes Keith Emerson's voltage-controlled Moog oscillators went out of tune, due to humidity and temperature.

Cover design

The cover, commissioned to William Neal who designed and painted every canvas, used a gatefold sleeve, depicting on the outside blank picture frames labelled with the titles of the pieces: "The Old Castle", "The Gnome", etc. The paintings were huge oil paintings full of ELP symbolism, like the Tarkus background in the "Hut" and the white dove embossed into the titanium white oil paint in "Promenade".
On the inner gatefold, all of the paintings were revealed, but one remains blank: "Promenade". The musical piece, of course, is not about a picture, but represents a walk through the gallery. Some CD covers use only the "revealed" version.
All of the paintings were later hung at the Hammersmith Town Hall, London, and photographed by Keith Morris and Nigel Marlow, both former graduates from Guildford School of Art.

Arrangement

The band's arrangement of the suite uses only four of the original ten pieces in Mussorgsky's suite, along with the linking "Promenades". The suite was performed live as one continuous piece, with new, group-written sections linking Mussorgsky's original themes, specific track markings on pressings are only a guide. Mussorgsky's original compositions are listed in bold.
  1. Promenade: Organ solo
  2. The Gnome: Group
  3. Promenade: Hammond organ and vocal
  5. The Sage: A new picture "drawn" by Lake in the mood of a medieval minnesang, works as sort of romantic prelude to "The Old Castle"
  7. The Old Castle: The full group performs a heavily accelerated adaptation of the original theme, leading directly into the next section
  8. Blues Variation, a twelve-bar blues credited to the group, borrowing themes from both The Old Castle itself, and some of the ex tempore work that Emerson had previously performed with The Nice
  9. Promenade: Group
  10. The Hut of Baba Yaga: Group
  11. The Curse of Baba Yaga is a new title to the middle section of the original piece. The music is again an adaption of the original piece, only the lyrics and vocal is completely new to the piece
  12. The Hut of Baba Yaga: Group
  13. The Great Gates of Kiev is also the last picture of Mussorgsky's piano-cycle, with vocals and lyrics added by the group. The piece features a refrain in the middle containing Hammond organ feedback.

    Reception

The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Track listing

* The studio version, recorded in 1993, was released on The Return of the Manticore box set and some pressings of the 1994 album In the Hot Seat.
2016 Deluxe Edition

Personnel

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

The album reached #3 in the UK album chart in December 1971, only by virtue of the fact that budget-priced albums, were eligible for inclusion at that time. At the beginning of 1972 another change in the chart rules excluded them again, which meant that Pictures disappeared from the chart from #9 after a run of just 5 weeks.
In the US Billboard album chart it peaked at #10 in early 1972.

Single

Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition was also performed in different electronic arrangements by both Isao Tomita and Tangerine Dream, and in a heavy metal adaptation by the German band Mekong Delta. The first and third mentioned are more complete versions of the original suite.