Pictures At an Exhibition (Live)

Pictures At an Exhibition (Live)

Recorded on March 26, 1971, at Newcastle City Hall, Pictures At an Exhibition commences with a Keith Emerson solo on a 1928 Harrison & Harrison pipe organ, ratifying ELP’s audacious fusion of religious chorale and stadium rock. Played as a continuous piece, the album’s shape-shifting propulsions are doubly impressive knowing that the trio played it all in real time. The evening climaxes in gleeful whimsy, with “Nut Rocker,” a buzzing, bumblebee-fast take on Tchaikovsky, with nods to Jerry Lee Lewis.