Five Bridges
| Five Bridges | ||||
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| Live album and Studio Album by The Nice | ||||
| Released | June 1970 | |||
| Recorded | Live at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, London, England, 17 October 1969 except "Country Pie", live at Fillmore East, Manhattan, New York City, New York, December 20, 1969 and "One of Those People" (1969 studio recording) | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock | |||
| Length | 45:20 | |||
| Label | UK: Charisma US: Mercury France, Germany: Philips |
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| Producer | The Nice | |||
| The Nice chronology | ||||
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| TopTenReviews |   |
The "Five Bridges Suite" is a modern piece of music, written in the 1960s, combining classical music and jazz. Written about the UK city of Newcastle upon Tyne, it was released as an album by the Nice as Five Bridges, which achieved the number two position in the UK album charts. In the Q & Mojo Classic Special Edition Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came No. 29 in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums".
The work was commissioned for the Newcastle Arts Festival and premiered with a full orchestra conducted by Joseph Eger on 10 October 1969 (the recorded version is from 17 October in Croydon's Fairfield Halls). The title refers to the city's five bridges spanning the River Tyne (two more have since been built over the river), and the album cover, by Hipgnosis, features an image of the Tyne Bridge.
The five movements are:
Emerson used Walter Piston's book on composition for the work. Emerson credits Friedrich Gulda for inspiring the High Level Fugue, which uses jazz figures in the strict classical form. The suite was recorded at a concert performance.
Also included on the Five Bridges album were live performances from the same Fairfield Hall concert of the Sibelius Intermezzo and a movement from Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony. Both involved the orchestra playing the "straight" music juxtaposed with the trio's interpretations. Newly discovered material from this concert was later issued as part of a 3-CD set entitled Here Come The Nice.
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Wikipedia