As is well known, adaptations of classical pieces for rock instruments are one of the things that made prog a much maligned genre, and that, like any snap judgement, can be partly right, in what concerns those who engaged in such generally contemptible practices (when (and how) they did: I'd certainly never throw Gentle Giant's mostly stellar discography overboard on account of a warped quote of Liszt's Liebestraum No. 3 on "Nothing at all" (which could even be heard as a deconstructionist take on romantic aesthetics and subject matters) - I'm not even dismissing that otherwise fine song because of it), but it can also be very wrong in what concerns those who were actually thinking progressively about music, instead of simply doing electrical versions of more or less recognizable musical pages from the western canon. Regrettably, that is what these ELPesque adaptations of Béla Bartók pieces essentially do; but that doesn't mean I would go as far as Bartók's heirs have, in determining that this shouldn't even be released. In fact, and taking into account that these guys have already been punished enough for their hubris, I might be even willing to concede that the initial "Quarts" may bring some nuance to such a critical view, by suggesting that, at least in short syncopated bursts, even rehashed old formulas can for a brief moment bring a spring to your step.
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