Monthly Archives: August 2012

And so, naturally, to Modest Mussorgsky. ELP led me to ‘Pictures from an Exhibition,’ I did the rest.

This was my first ever live piece of classical music. Well, I say that – there must have been other items on the programme that night, but I don’t remember any of them. Perhaps my father would remember – he took me to the Music Hall in Aberdeen – my parents were regular attenders (and, as far as I know, still are) at the (R)SNO‘s concert seasons; I must have used my mother’s ticket that night. I presume that they were under Sir Alexander Gibson, but I really only remember the music – the familiar ‘Promenade’; the scuttling chickens; the Great Gates of Kiev… I wonder now why I didn’t start going more often – that single concert made a strong impression on me. Maybe it just wasn’t ‘cool’ enough; maybe I was too much into too any other things. I missed a lot, though.

(Of course, now I’ve written this, I remember being taken to see Hephzibah Menuhin at an age when I was still learning piano; so around 10 or 11. The chief memory of that evening, of course, is that I was asked to present Miss Menuhin with her bouquet at the end (‘oh, look, there’s a presentable child in the front row. Ask him’) and my piano teacher, who was also in the audience, didn’t recognise me. Just call me Zelig.)

What I think now:

I still like ELP; I still appreciate Mussorgsky.  I’m sorry that I don’t know more of his music, but, seriously, where would I get the time?  I have many other obsessions to deal with, as will become clear.  ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ is highly recommended, of course, and maybe one day I’ll get round to properly listening to ‘Boris Godunov’

Since then:

One perfect, neat thing.  To celebrate my father’s 70^th birthday, and perhaps to pay him back just a little for starting this whole thing off in the first place, I took him to the Proms, to see a performance of ‘Pictures’.  It was a terrific evening, with the usual Ravel orchestration ditched for a mix of other orchestrations, some of them quite striking.  I have a recording from that evening, and I can’t think of a better new entry for this list.

What I said back then:

Much derided, both at the time and, even more, since – and not without reason (if you want a good laugh, try searching for the lyrics of Pete Sinfield), they were nevertheless as important to me and my musical education as anything I heard in the mid-Seventies.

It was a music class, I recall – I think the teacher’s name was McPherson, but I might be wrong. At any rate, he decided to try and impress us with some modern music, and thought that comparing and contrasting the Ravel orchestration with ELP’s version of ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ would at least penetrate our disinterested teenage brains.

Well, it worked with me. I’ll come back to Mussorgsky in a minute, but the version I rushed out to buy was ELP. Now, say what you like about the pretentiousness or otherwise of what they were about, but these guys were (and still are) proper musicians, with real musical ideas, and they opened my mind to so much which I would otherwise have scorned. I retain, for instance, a fondness for the Ginastera Piano Concerto – a tortuous piece of music – thanks to Keith Emerson’s ‘Toccata’, and I would never have explored Aaron Copland otherwise.

When ‘Works, vol. 1’ came out, I snapped it up, and loved it in all its variety, getting to know Emerson’s Piano Concerto, and considering it the equal of any I’d heard before then. Which, of course, was hardly any – I didn’t know any concerto the way I knew this one. Many, many years later, I decided to dig it out and listen again, confident that my teenage enthusiasm would prove to have been misplaced.

But it’s actually a fine piece of work, if a little derivative in places – it certainly stands up to the passage of time in a way that a lot of those lyrics didn’t. All together now:

Every day a little sadder,

A little madder,

Someone get me a ladder…

What I think now:

Yes, I still listen to ELP on occasion.  What I didn’t mention at the time was the prog rock rivalry which existed at school – everyone was allowed Pink Floyd, for some reason, but then you had to choose – either Yes, ELP or Genesis.  My path had been set, and so until about half a dozen years ago, I had never listened properly to either of those two other bands in their Seventies pomp.  On mature reflection, I kind of wish I had – Gabriel-era Genesis, for example, is a splendid thing of its type.  But I’ll always be an ELP boy, mainly, I think due to Keith Emerson’s keyboard skills.

Since then:

Not much, really – I bought some of the CDs I used to own on vinyl, and I listened to some of the post 1980 material.  I really wish I hadn’t.  I’ll stick to my memories, thanks.  Oh, and while I was researching links for this, I discovered Rachel Flowers.

Wow.  Just wow.  I love that this music can still provoke that reaction in me.