Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Pictures at an Exhibition (Music CD)

Much was made of early prog rock's fusion of rock with classical music, but Emerson, Lake & Palmer was one of the only bands to take that task seriously, and never more so than on Pictures at an Exhibition. The well-known Mussorgsky piece is a staple of the classical music diet, and a prime example of "program music," where related sections of a piece combine to tell a story. True to the spirit of the times, ELP attacked Pictures with both classically trained respect and rocker irreverence. The album, recorded live in 1971, finds the band turning Mussorgsky's work inside out, not just restructuring it but reinventing it for their rock audience.