Emerson Law

Lively, ambitious, almost entirely successful debut album, made up of keyboard-dominated instrumentals ("The Barbarian," "Three Fates") and romantic ballads ("Lucky Man") showcasing all three members' very daunting talents. This album, which reached the Top 20 in America and got to number four in England, showcased the group at its least pretentious and most musicianly – with the exception of a few moments on "Three Fates" and perhaps "Take a Pebble," there isn't much excess, and there is a lot of impressive musicianship here. "Take a Pebble" might have passed for a Moody Blues track of the era but for the fact that none of the Moody Blues' keyboard men could solo like Keith Emerson.

The venerable pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio joins the Emerson Quartet for two memorable performances. To the uncommon clarity and rhythmic drive of the string players, Menahem Pressler adds some of his own expansive personality. The mix works beautifully. You can hear every note in the scores, and everything is played with great expression and enough rhythmic tension to keep the music flowing.

Pictures At An Exhibition was filmed at the Lyceum in London in December 1970. A slightly different version was recorded for a live album release in Newcastle in early 1971. The film version was finally released in cinemas in 1973 and has had brief previous releases on VHS and DVD…

Deutsche Grammophon's affordable Trio series revives great recordings from the past, many long unavailable and coveted by collectors. Yet this 2004 triple-disc set of Schubert's late string quartets and the Quintet in C major, performed by the Emerson String Quartet and Mstislav Rostropovich, is identical to the 1999 release in all respects except for packaging and price, and will be superfluous to owners of the first edition.

Excellent addition to any prog-rock music collection
ELP returned from an extended hiatus in 1977, sweetly oblivious to the fact that progressive rock was on the decline. Many bought the double-elpee set just the same (temporarily forgetting the substantial investment that Welcome Back was) to find that “Works Volume 1” was in fact three sides of solo music fused together with a token “band” side at the end. No doubt it’s this sort of tinkering with the affection of fans that resulted in the backlash against the band in later years.

Legendary progressive rock giants Emerson, Lake & Palmer were formed in 1970 by the brilliant keyboard virtuoso Keith Emerson, gifted singer / composer / guitarist Greg Lake and dynamic drummer / percussionist Carl Palmer. Torchbearers of the progressive rock sound, ELP jointly created the super-group concept and are among the most important bands in the history of rock music…