| Pictures at an Exhibition | ||||
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| Live album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer | ||||
| Released | November 1971 | |||
| Recorded | 26 March 1971, Newcastle City Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne, England |
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| Genre | Progressive rock | |||
| Length | 37:56 | |||
| Label | Island Manticore(UK) Cotillion/Atlantic, Rhino (US) |
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| Producer | Greg Lake | |||
| Emerson, Lake & Palmer chronology | ||||
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| Alternative cover | ||||
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Original cover with pictures unrevealed.
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Robert Christgau | (D+)[2] |
| Georgiy Starostin | (10/15)[3] |
| Rolling Stone | (not rated)[4] |
Pictures at an Exhibition is an album by British progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in 1971 as a live album and re-released in 2001 as a remastered edition including both live and studio versions of Modest Mussorgsky's classical piece Pictures at an Exhibition. 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.
There was also a video made of a different live performance (Lyceum Theatre, 9 December 1970). This had a limited theatrical release in 1973, 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.
Contents |
The original album 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 sleeve, 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.[5]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Promenade" | Mussorgsky | 1:58 |
| 2. | "The Gnome" | Mussorgsky/Palmer | 4:18 |
| 3. | "Promenade" | Mussorgsky/Lake | 1:23 |
| 4. | "The Sage" | Lake | 4:42 |
| 5. | "The Old Castle" | Mussorgsky/Emerson | 2:33 |
| 6. | "Blues Variation" | Emerson/Lake/Palmer | 4:22 |
| 7. | "Promenade" | Mussorgsky | 1:29 |
| 8. | "The Hut of Baba Yaga" | Mussorgsky | 1:12 |
| 9. | "The Curse of Baba Yaga" | Emerson/Lake/Palmer | 4:10 |
| 10. | "The Hut of Baba Yaga (Part 2)" | Mussorgsky | 1:06 |
| 11. | "The Great Gates of Kiev/The End" | Mussorgsky/Lake | 6:37 |
| 12. | "Nut Rocker" | Tchaikovsky/Fowley | 4:26 |
| 2001 remastered edition | |||||||||
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| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 13. | "Pictures at an Exhibition" (studio version)*
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Mussorgsky/Emerson/Lake/Palmer | 35:17 | ||||||
* Although the CD lists this as being the 'medley', recorded in 1993, released on The Return of the Manticore box set and some pressings of the 1994 album In the Hot Seat, it is actually a live recording of the band's performance of 'Pictures' taking from their first Isle of Wight show - including the famous cannons being fired at the end.
| 2008 Deluxe Edition Bonus Disc | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 1. | "Promenade" | Mussorgsky | 2:02 | ||||||
| 2. | "The Gnome" | Mussorgsky/Palmer | 5:41 | ||||||
| 3. | "Promenade" | Mussorgsky/Lake | 1:24 | ||||||
| 4. | "The Sage" | Lake | 5:07 | ||||||
| 5. | "The Old Castle" | Mussorgsky/Emerson | 4:24 | ||||||
| 6. | "Blues Variation" | Emerson/Lake/Palmer | 6:05 | ||||||
| 7. | "Promenade" | Mussorgsky | 1:31 | ||||||
| 8. | "The Hut of Baba Yaga" | Mussorgsky | 1:15 | ||||||
| 9. | "The Curse of Baba Yaga" | Emerson/Lake/Palmer | 4:56 | ||||||
| 10. | "The Hut of Baba Yaga" | Mussorgsky | 1:11 | ||||||
| 11. | "The Great Gates of Kiev/The End" | Mussorgsky/Lake | 6:52 | ||||||
| 12. | "The Barbarian" | Bartók; arr. Emerson/Lake/Palmer | 5:23 | ||||||
| 13. | "Knife-Edge" | Emerson/Lake/Janáček/Bach/Fraser | 8:03 | ||||||
| 14. | "Rondo" | Brubeck/Emerson/Jackson/O'List/Davison | 17:50 | ||||||
| 15. | "Nut Rocker" | Tchaikovsky/Fowley | 4:26 | ||||||
The album begins with the announcement "And now we're going to give you ... Pictures at an Exhibition", strangely followed by a great cheer. This seems to imply that Newcastle audiences are Mussorgsky enthusiasts.
The album reached #3 in the UK album chart in December 1971, only by virtue of the fact that budget-priced albums (of which Pictures at an Exhibition was one), 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.
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.
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