PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

I don`t think that this version of Mussorgsky`s "Pictures at an Exhibition" is "great". It has interesting moments, but there are some parts only played with an acoustic guitar and sung by Lake, which are good, but lack in continuity with the rest of the musical piece. Maybe at the time this album was released it was very praised, but it is not very interesting for me. There are places that the sound created by the three musicians is not enough for this piece of music. I really prefer the live version included in their "In Concert" album (years later re-issued with extra tracks as "Works Live"), because the orchestra used in that version added more energy, an energy that the musical piece needed. That version also has more continuity and works better as a whole. "Nutrocker" is funny in places.

I don`t think that ELP`s vesions of "Pictures at an Exhibition" could be compared to Isao Tomita`s version. They are very different. Tomita has his own style and vision and he doesn`t play Progressive Rock music. His musical arrangements, which are very good, IMO, belong more to the world of the then called Electronic Music in the seventies and they are also closer to Classical Music.

ELP`s versions of "Pictures at an Exhibition" were good demonstrations that musicians who were considered only as "Rockers" could play difficult Classical Music pieces, adding to them some interesting arrangements. In this objective, ELP had success.

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