[La Mano Gaucha]

Jim and Rick and Roll are correct. There is also a much closer version of "Mars" by ELP (Powell lineup). I can barely remember that particular version, as I was never a fan of that reincarnation of the group, but I do recall that it was closer to the original Holst. I suppose that I can play it here on AM by clicking on it and then report about my findings. More later...

The Ravel orchestration of "Pictures at an Exhibition" is only one of many other orchestrations of that piece. The Ravel is indeed the most famous version, but in fact it is perhaps the least Russian-sounding version of them all. For a true Russian-sounding version of it, try the Sergei Gorchikov orchestration, made in the 50s, I think, but not recorded until relatively recently. That version is very Mussorgskian, sounding very much like the kind of orchestration the composer provided for the original, true versions of "A Night on Bald Mountain" and "Boris Godunov" (the versions more comonly heard are by his friend Rimsky-Korsakov, and these are quite gentle in comparison with Mussorgsky's original orchestrations). Leo Funtek's version, predating the Ravel, is also quite outstanding. Other more or less well-known orchestrations of "Pictures" are by Leopold Stokowsky (he deleted certain movements of the suite, alas, and coloristically speaking, it's quite garish), Vladimir Ashkenazy (the famous pianist) and Walter Goehr. There are several other orchestrations available. Even though many of these are quite nice, especially the Ravel, Gorchikov, Funtek, and to a certain degree, Ashkenazy, the original piano version is still supreme.

ELP's version departs radically, and sometimes completely, from the original text in many places. That's OK because ELP is a rock band after all. I'm not so sure if Emerson really had Ravel in mind when he was "orchestrating" his/their own version. My view is that what ELP had in mind was to simply transcribe several portions of the piece their own way, rather than follow the example of Ravel's orchestral palette (or to slavishly follow the original text in its entirety). Probably the colors we hear on the ELP version were more or less dictated by the limitations of that time's technology available to rock bands. When I listen to ELP doing "Pictures", I hear their "orchestration", no one else's. It is certain that ELP knew the Ravel orchestration well, but I still hear ELP, above all else. That's probably what made them so original at the time -- take a warhorse and make it your own (though in this case, less so than in "Abaddon's Bolero").