PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

Mr Emerson continues to rock up the classics and doing an invaluable service to the serious music repertoise by making some of us go back and listen to the originals. Here the piece to undergo a major strip down and rework is "Pictures" based on Ravel's transcription of Mussorgsky solo piano composition. The pyrotechnics are there to thrill, Mr Lake add some lyrics and it is fun. Recently Wendy Carlos, the other great Moog synth user of the period, revealed in the liner notes of a 4 CD set of her earlier recordings, that she had started work on "Pictures" as a follow up to the "Switched On Bach" recordings. Then heard that Keith Emerson had stolen in first, and so felt forced to abandon that project - a pity because I imagine Carlos would have produced something very different for the synth.

With hindsight, I must admit I'm increasingly finding this to be an album of its time. That personal feeling has further developed, after I discovered the much more obscure Mekon Delta's "Pictures" arranged for drums, bass and guitar. Less flash and personally a more satisfying interpretation.