The live album "Pictures at an Exhibition" by progressive rock trailblazers Keith Emerson, Greg Lake & Carl Palmer, recorded in 1971 and released in the same year, is remarkable in many respects: not only did it feature a rock band interpreting a classical composition (Modest Mussorgsky's piano cycle, made world-famous by Maurice Ravel's arrangement for orchestra) in a comprehensive manner. Emerson, Lake & Palmer added independently arranged parts, sung text passages and freely improvised cadenzas to the renowned work and combined all these elements with a good dose of blues and attitude using a rock instrumentarium that was particularly versatile in terms of sound at the time. The result was a multi-layered listening experience that reached people with different listening interests all over the world.

The keyboard ensemble of the Department of Popular Music at the mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna under the direction of Philipp Nykrin and Herbert Pichler is taking on the great challenge of bringing this epochal work back to the stage as part of the mdw's transdisciplinary festival KlangBildKlang. What can be expected here, however, is not just a "cover of a cover", but rather a contemporary interpretation by young, talented musicians, with great emphasis being placed on the expansion of the present keyboard part by a "keyboard orchestra" with current, fascinating sound possibilities. (press release)