Description
Emerson, Lake & Palmer Boldly Reimagine Mussorgsky’s 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 MoFi’s California Studio and Housed in a Stoughton Gatefold Jacket: Mobile Fidelity’s Numbered-Edition 180g 33RPM LP Teems with Breadth, Presence, and Dimensionality
¼” / 15 IPS Dolby A analog copy to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe
Emerson, Lake & Palmer were so committed to their visionary interpretation of Modest Mussorgsky’s “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 band’s 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 Lab’s 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 band's 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 you'll 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.
What you will hear is cut from the best-possible source, and just might be the master. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab engineers observed that the tape box that contained the source tape is marked “Masters” but cannot definitively confirm that is the case given the tape had no splices or other indications that can be taken as absolute proof that this was a master. As such, the label erred on the side of caution when it came to provenance. The sonic results, however, are definitive.
Drop the needle and immerse yourself in this daring, extremely successful reimagining of a piano suite conceived in 1874 by Mussorgsky. ELP had been familiar with the classical piece since the group formed. Keyboardist Keith Emerson had attended an orchestral performance of the work and acquired the score, then floated the idea to his mates that they should adopt at least parts of Pictures at an Exhibition in their live shows. The band soon embraced the challenge of adapting the entire composition for the stage. Once it completed sessions for its sophomore LP, Tarkus, the trio decided to record it for official release.
Bolstered by three original additions to the suite and a “Nutrocker” encore that’s a playful rock ‘n’ roll take on Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker,” Pictures at an Exhibition simultaneously blurs lines between genres and epitomizes the trio’s 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.
Tracklisting:
A1. Promenade
A2. The Gnome
Al3. Promenade
A4. The Sage
A5. The Old Castle
A6. Blues Variation
B1. Promenade
B2. The Hut of Baba Yaga
B3. The Curse of Baba Yaga
B4. The Hut of Baba Yaga
B5. The Great Gates of Kiev
B6. Nutrocker
