With all those great album covers in their catalog, I always wondered why RCA and DG opted to use generic landscapes, dated designs, or Prince Charles’ water colors for their CD reissues on RCA Gold/Red Labels, Great Performances (newsprint in beige), Sony Essentials, or DG Galleria series. Maybe it was image rights issues, but it’s a shame the industry didn’t use them in the CD heyday of the 90s. Those generic covers made the product look cheap and didn’t pay respect to great artists. As a young classical music enthusiast, I failed to appreciate and collect greats like Szell and Ormandy because Sony treated their albums as being cheap and second rate. Like it or not, we also judge music by their covers. Thank you Dave for this great channel and righting marketing wrongs done by legacy labels.
The way I understand it, it was a matter of traditions set in the LP era, namely those of the Budget Reissue series. A label would reissue older recordings for less than full price in some kind of cheap(er) series, and in order to not anger those who bought those same recordings at full price 10 years prior, they felt compelled to cheapen the appearance. Whether that was a good or justified idea is another matter. Problem is when the CD appeared, those classic recordings had already been relegated to the Budget Series, so there was no turning back. Hence, they continued that doubtful tradition well into the CD era. You‘ll notice that there are exceptions. Böhm‘s Mozart Requiem (on DG) was a full-price disc for most of existence, so it appeared on CD in its original cover. And so did others.
Thank you for your explanation. The RCA Victor Gold Seal , RCA Victor Papillon, and EMI Angel Studio labels were the worst. Harsh monochromatic lettering, an artist photo on white background was lazy graphic design.
This sounds like a fun series! I have always liked the paintings on 60s DG LPs and Hyperion CDs; they have introduced me to a lot of artwork and given me a special love for the art of Gustave Moreau.
I love LP album covers! I have a collection of LPs that I never listen to just because I love the cover art. Of that ilk I nominate the DGG LP cover of Alban Berg's Wozzeck with Dietrich Fischer Dieskau and Evelyn Lear hauntingly staring out at you. One of DG's few early breaks from their standard DGG yellow frame. And it worked. I snapped it up at the ripe old age of 14 at Sam Goody's west side store and got to know a masterpiece that I could not have imagined in my head! And, for those of you who like to go further back there is a great Taschen book: Steinweiss: The Inventor of the Modern Album Cover with the early 78 covers he designed. A book worth owning! Still on Amazon and ebay for those who care. Happy New Year David from Boston!!!
Wow! Dear Dave, let me give a hearty endorsement of your new series. Contrary to the tired cliche, I've always believed that one should be able to judge a book precisely because of its cover. I actually borrowed a copy of Das Rheingold from a public library because of the cover, and it opened to me a whole wonderful universe! Covers matter.
I learn so much from your videos Dave. There's so much classical music out there it often makes me flabbergasted but with your help I try to navigate the waters. Thanks and keep up the great content.
What a great idea, Dave! The Artwork is soo important for LPs...You should never judge and buy a book by its cover but with LPs it's different. A cover without an image? No Way!! It would also be interesting to compare the different art styles of different labels, e.g. DG compared with Decca, etc. So thank you Dave for this glorious idea. A very Happy and Peaceful New Year to you from Germany
My absolute favourite Decca cover is the UK cover of Kyung-Wha Chung Walton/Stravinsky VC’s. After so many dull stereotypical cover shots taken of her looking impassive or slightly moody in gardens, out of the blue a fantastic modern informal and candid shot by Clive Barda in the mixing room of her shock/ hilarity next to a slightly bewildered Walton is awesome with some lovely smaller shots from the recording session on the back.
Hi Dave. I want to congratulate you for treating the CD covers in your channel as they deserve. Since I was a child, when I used to listen to my father's LP's, while the music was playing, I used to fantasize about the great covers of many of them. Now I no longer fantasize, but many times when I buy a cd, if I was, or I am undecided by a version or another of the same work, I choose to buy it for the quality and design of its cover according to my tastes. I hope to see many many videos on the subject. Best regards from the other side of the Atlantic.
I'll never forget the LP cover of Previn's first "Belshazzar's Feast", featuring a voluptuous belly dancer. I bought it as a teen. The music was good too...
Great idea Dave. I mostly remember the album contents by its cover. The content and relevance of the cover doesn’t matter, as long as it interesting and memorable.
I love the idea! I was born in 1963, and I remember looking at that album cover, which was part of my parents' collection. Perhaps I am a low brow, but album covers influence my purchases.
They do mine, too. Before I started listening to Dave, I avoided Naxos. And I always hated DGG's gaudy gold marquee slapped on every cover. I'm glad to see they've finally jettisoned that.
Anybody familiar with the book Classique? It show cases Cassical Music LP cover art from the 1950s to the early 80s. The photos come a German record collector and cover a broad swath of labels, works, and orchestras( though interestingly no Mahler) My favorite section is at the end, where it displays an exhaustive amount of record labels themselves from top lines like Columbia Masterworks,London, Angel and their corresponding budget versions like Oydessey,London Treasury and Seraphim. They show Vox, Turnabout and Candide. Brings back a lot of happy memories from my LP buying days.
@robhaynes4410 the full title is Classique: Cover Art for Classical Music by Horst Scherg. They have it for 69.95$ on Abebooks, 24.99$ on Biblio, and 72$ on Amazon, All used copies I believe.
Hello Dave and all readers and contributors...Happy New Year 2024....a new year that will bring us new exciting and wonderful Videos from Dave, The Chairman of the Board of all TH-cam People. This new series on covers is a great idea...and yes, covers may influence the purchase of an album. The LP era might have been the best in this area. I remember buying the Karl Richter box sets of Bach Kantaten and Xmas Oratorio, on Archive Produktion (late 80s)...the boxes were so beautiful (even the Oratorio's one, that had no picture)...I mean, the cloth-like texture, the color, and the booklets, full of information on the music, the texts, the performers and the instruments...I do not think they are available on LP anymore...but, who knows. As for the cover of Bolero, well, it's a bit weird to me, but the funny thing is that this "Carmen" looks a lot like a friend of mine...I know it is not her because she does not smoke, haha...great video, great series! So much fun and...let's have a great 2024!! A hug! Guillermo Villacorta.
I going to like this series. I have an extensive Flickr stream of my entire LP collection. One of my time faves is the Steinberg/Boston Planets. Then of course, there is the humorous Westminster "Buck Rogers" cover for the Boult/Vienna Planets.
Another Bolero cover that I found striking, was the original cover for Munch's Bolero on RCA. All red, with yellow lettering, and a colorful pitcture of just legs in a gauzy dress.
RCA did some classy cover and album designs. Again Munch, the first Daphnis & Chloe issue with not only cover art but an entire booklet of design by Andy Warhol. They did something similar with Munch's album of Prokofiev Romeo excerpts. The initial issue of Respighi tone poems with Toscanini featured a rotogravure style book of Roman scenes. And none of these were in the deluxe Soria series.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, DAVE !!! Always liked the album cover of the LP issue of Stravinsky's A SOLDIER'S TALE on DG. It featured The Boston Symphony Chamber Players with narration by John Gielgud and the devil played by Ron Moody and the soldier by Tom Courtenay. A cartoonish figure of the devil thumbing his nose at everyone. Thanks Dave, this will be an interest subject for future videos.
My favorite Westminster Gold cover was the one for "Götterdämmerung" - about as clever a visual pun as anyone ever concocted. Another fave was the LP cover of the Bernstein/NY Philharmonic "La Mer" featuring a winsome young woman with flowers in her hair...
A great subject! I was always drawn to album covers and when I started collecting often bought a record because of the album cover. I was usually attracted by paintings, like Canaletto's souvenirs of Venice and such. I bought a record of Yehudi Menuhin conducting Schubert's Great C Major symphony, because I liked the painting on the cover. I still am drawn to paintings on covers. I've noticed recently the impact of artsy pop music album covers on Classical recordings, especially on Alpha, and the "artsy" attempts at portraits, such as the really weird images of François Xavier Roth on his covers, which I think are rather pretentious. You can see how much DG is focusing on the artist rather than the music - all those fancy photo shoots of the performers. My step daughter, who has been collecting vinyl (well over 100 lps now; apparently there's a growth in sales of physical product recently, with lps outselling cds; and they're so expensive!), likes to display the albums on her walls.
I think with regards to showcasing the performer rather than the composer, except in the case of new or newly-promoted, obscure repertoire (or occasionally, new, SIGNIFICANT musicology about a work), in a world where 100 recordings of a work already exist, what else could the label and performer possibly be promoting, other than the performer? All the pretense about elevating the composer, with the performer modestly taking a secondary role, is so much BS when it comes to releasing an album, because in most cases they wouldn't be bothering to release the album in the first place except to promote their own careers. Surely nobody needs that particular album to be able to hear the piece in a decent performance. And since that's what everyone is actually doing, nobody should be shy about it. Furthermore, composers don't create music. They create inspiration and instructions for performers to make music. But it's the performers who have to actually bring it to life. So any piece of music, unless you are content to stare at the sheet music, is a co-equal collaboration between composer and performer.
@@ModusVivendiMedia Yes, your point is well taken, though that’s not quite what I see in many of the photos of these performers. If you compare covers with Angela Hewitt’s photos, or Rachel Barton Pine’s and those of, say Francois Xavier Roth’s, or Bruce Liu’s, there’s something different that’s being said about the performers.
@@smurashige They're all just portrait photos. The only particular difference I see between the two sets of examples you gave is that a) one group is women, the other men, and b) the women are either smiling or giving a hint of a smile, and the men usually look more serious. Other than that, I really don't see what you're getting at. Portrait photographers all have different styles and try various creative things to try to express the personality or charm of the subject. I don't honestly see what's weird or pretentious about them, or different from classical album artist portraits 50-70 years ago. (Unless I'm somehow missing the "weird" and "pretentious" album covers you're thinking of.)
I was just pondering last night how much I like some record labels' series designs, for instance, the Philips Silver Line CDs with the medium grey backgrounds, the red inner trays and the silver lettering and diagonal lines. Those are so attractive and classy. And how much I hate certain other ones, such as those abysmal CBS Great Performances newspaper headline abominations.
Bernstein's Sibelius: Symphony No. 4/ Swan of Tuonela/ New York Philharmonic LP. I picked it up at the library as a child, because the art and even the typeface was so spooky and mysterious looking. Changed my life and it's why I'm here.
I grew up in the 50s and remember the beautiful full-color albums coming in when stereo arrived, and record companies wanted to announce the new sounds. (as I remember it they put the same pictures on their mono releases of the same music, doing some misleading marketing) Sometimes there would be no identifying words at on the front, just the beautiful picture. The one that springs to mind is Deep River, the Robert Shaw Chorale doing spirituals to perfection.
Favorite cover that made me buy the album was 'Invitation To The Dance' with Eugene Ormandy on Columbia Records with works by Weber Saint-Saens etc.. I didn't know the works at the time but I wasn't disappointed, still my favorite...
Bolero LP cover by Lorin Maazel from Angel(EMI) is as good(?) as it gets. That label had a art department headed by Marvin Schwartz. I loved their cover art in every aspects. Good pictures and compositions, and neat artworks along with beautiful color schemes. Best graphics!
I LOVE THIS IDEA! I'm very much into the design element of classical releases. I'm always bummed out when you read the contents of a big box from its book rather than going through the original album jackets. Maybe I spent too many years working in record shops, ogling the product all day. Didn't Columbia have the most reliably awful graphic design in the 60s? Not just their classical; look at Ray Conniff, Percy Faith, Dave Brubeck, Andy Williams... Yeesh. You can tell it was all the same staff that did the classical, too. All that said, I do enjoy this Ravel disc. It looks more like 1950s Columbia, which was better. Her hair is amazing. Looking forward to more in this series!
That beautiful photograph is by Melvin Sokolsky (1933-2022) originally for the magazine Harper's Bazaar. Pretty sure that is supposed to be a lit match in her mouth, not a cigarette.
What a good idea. I associate Vaughn Williams music with bucolic English landscapes and don't know if I would enjoy them as much in a plain grey cover, though that is what streaming is.. Back in the day, opera recordings were opulent box sets that promised so much. I particularly liked the Karajan/Leontyne Price Carmen, done in red and yellow with gorgeous notes; and the Solti/Crespin Rosenkavalier, with the box wrapped in silver paper with a raised sliver rose and Jugendstil decorated notes within. They represented a lot of lawn mowing and pet sitting, too but were worth it.
London Records charged a dollar extra for that Rosenkavalier booklet but it was well worth it. I no longer have the silver foil lp box but I kept the booklet. The cd packaging was utilitarian in comparison.
If my fortunes turn around, I look forward to going back to physical CDs and the occasional LP (for old time's sake). In the meantime, though, at least Idagio has a "Booklet" button for those companies that provide PDFs. It's stunning, though, how many don't. But PDFs cannot replace the feel of a back cover or booklet in hand while listening to an album.
Forgot to point out that jazz covers used to be so much cooler than the self-indulgent promo shots you get nowadays. Check out Sonny Clark's "Cool Struttin'" to see what I mean.
Thanks Dave, great idea for a series, please continue with this! I'm sure that over the years I have been influenced in buying records/CD by the covers, a fitting cover gives you the impression that the product is a thing of beauty. For another record cover that is an icon of sexiness, how about the Angel LP of Previn's LSO Rachmaninov Second, with two (at least) people lying in bed?
Only one cover?? I thought you'd have at least 10. I use to buy records just because of the cover. The visuals were a big part of the fun. Especially classical records were often the cover was graced with a great painting. The graphic design could be thrilling! Jazz albums too! All music. Id put this cover in my conedy bin. Along with , say, Birgit Nillsson. I loved the NYP series of Bernstein Mahler albums. The famous photo of Stravinsky pushing up his glasses in his Rite of Spring album. Some were worth framing. Dave, would you please review the movie "Tar" and "Maestro". I would like to know what you think on pop culture takes on classical subjects.
Furthermore, I would consider the Bolero cover to be classic camp. A fat cry from, say, that great cover of the Wave on the Boulez La Mer album. Another cover that I loved were the lilies on the Das Klagende Lied with Boulez. The 60's were uniquely visual. Think "Yellow Submarine". If you had eyes, there was alot of exciting stuff.
Well let's get to those shocking Wagner orchestral disks RCA made with Edo de Waart. You know the ones! Parsifal, Tristan und Isolde, The RIng. I know I bought them because of the arresting visuals. Just like decades ago I bought many Westminster Gold LPs. Yes, art work matters. I would never have bought the Mehta recording of Schmidt's 4th if it hadn't been for the Klimt painting Death and Life on the London cover.
I grew up with the Ravel cover as a kid and always put it in the same category as cover for Herb Alpert's "Peaches and Cream." These were albums bought by older siblings and seemed, at first, as part of their way of trying to be cool. Maybe the covers were less an outright temptation than a statement that you weren't afraid to admit its appeal--and that this was also a way of branding the product as fit for "real men," like a "bracing" after-shave or the manlier brew of Ballantine Ale. The classical department has no monopoly on the kind of merchandising that stereotypes both content and consumer. Now that some examples of this seem outrageously dated, we enjoy them as a form of kitsch. In a very different vein was the cover art on Bernstein's Columbia recordings of Mahler symphonies 2-5, the collages by Barbara Hatch. I still don't fully understand the meanings of all the visual components, but the configurations always struck me a compatible with the music in a way seldom approached on other covers. I sometimes tried to imagine collages that could have been done for the later symphonies, but that might not have worked out. Since the collages are more attuned to the "Jugendstil" character of Mahler's earlier symphonies, a different sensibility might have been needed for what came later. These covers were more interesting than photos of performers, which usually seemed formulaic (even the look of Bernstein in creative frenzy). Artist shots seldom were as good some of the Francis Wolff shots for Blue Note's jazz classics.
If you ever decide to follow this series up with one devoted to the least effective album covers of all time, I'd like to suggest any recording of Verdi's Otello showing the tenor in blackface.
I like this category! Album covers often led me to a purchase. I can think of several off the top of my head. Should be very interesting. Hello, Finster! or is it Phinster?
Off the top of my head, I would say that alpha, Chandos, BIS and cpo consistently have the most beautiful covers in my eyes. Not very sexy, but they give a foretaste of the mood of the music. Edit: I just realized that all of them are European labels. Take that 'Murica!
I'm a graphic designer and I have an obsession for how music is presented visually. It has more impact on how we experience music than we think. From the mid-50s to mid 70s record covers for the great classical labels (Columbia, etc.) used to be beautiful and often quite creative - except DG because of that annoying yellow block.
Smoking? Not exactly. The woman is holding a burning match in her mouth. That makes it all the more original, even surrealistic. This is an image of a hot babe who likes to play with fire! Still more Carmen than anything by Ravel.
With all those great album covers in their catalog, I always wondered why RCA and DG opted to use generic landscapes, dated designs, or Prince Charles’ water colors for their CD reissues on RCA Gold/Red Labels, Great Performances (newsprint in beige), Sony Essentials, or DG Galleria series. Maybe it was image rights issues, but it’s a shame the industry didn’t use them in the CD heyday of the 90s. Those generic covers made the product look cheap and didn’t pay respect to great artists. As a young classical music enthusiast, I failed to appreciate and collect greats like Szell and Ormandy because Sony treated their albums as being cheap and second rate. Like it or not, we also judge music by their covers. Thank you Dave for this great channel and righting marketing wrongs done by legacy labels.
The way I understand it, it was a matter of traditions set in the LP era, namely those of the Budget Reissue series. A label would reissue older recordings for less than full price in some kind of cheap(er) series, and in order to not anger those who bought those same recordings at full price 10 years prior, they felt compelled to cheapen the appearance. Whether that was a good or justified idea is another matter.
Problem is when the CD appeared, those classic recordings had already been relegated to the Budget Series, so there was no turning back. Hence, they continued that doubtful tradition well into the CD era. You‘ll notice that there are exceptions. Böhm‘s Mozart Requiem (on DG) was a full-price disc for most of existence, so it appeared on CD in its original cover. And so did others.
Thank you for your explanation. The RCA Victor Gold Seal , RCA Victor Papillon, and EMI Angel Studio labels were the worst. Harsh monochromatic lettering, an artist photo on white background was lazy graphic design.
Those Bernstein Royal Edition watercolors were so cheesy. They should have called it the Royal Suckup Edition.
@@bbailey7818King Charles and his stupid paintings
And don’t even get me started about Philips. They put such lame, abstract covers on some of the very most important recordings I own.
This sounds like a fun series! I have always liked the paintings on 60s DG LPs and Hyperion CDs; they have introduced me to a lot of artwork and given me a special love for the art of Gustave Moreau.
I love LP album covers! I have a collection of LPs that I never listen to just because I love the cover art.
Of that ilk I nominate the DGG LP cover of Alban Berg's Wozzeck with Dietrich Fischer Dieskau and Evelyn Lear hauntingly staring out at you. One of DG's few early breaks from their standard DGG yellow frame. And it worked. I snapped it up at the ripe old age of 14 at Sam Goody's west side store and got to know a masterpiece that I could not have imagined in my head!
And, for those of you who like to go further back there is a great Taschen book: Steinweiss: The Inventor of the Modern Album Cover with the early 78 covers he designed. A book worth owning! Still on Amazon and ebay for those who care.
Happy New Year David from Boston!!!
Wow! Dear Dave, let me give a hearty endorsement of your new series. Contrary to the tired cliche, I've always believed that one should be able to judge a book precisely because of its cover. I actually borrowed a copy of Das Rheingold from a public library because of the cover, and it opened to me a whole wonderful universe! Covers matter.
When I was in college in the late 60's, nobody needed a sexy album cover to remind them what "Bolero" was the best musical accompaniment for. ;)
I learn so much from your videos Dave. There's so much classical music out there it often makes me flabbergasted but with your help I try to navigate the waters. Thanks and keep up the great content.
Yes! The Living Stereo albums are/were phenomenal!
What a great idea, Dave! The
Artwork is soo important for LPs...You should never judge and buy a book by its cover but with LPs it's different. A cover without an image? No Way!!
It would also be interesting to compare the different art styles of different labels, e.g. DG compared with Decca, etc.
So thank you Dave for this glorious idea.
A very Happy and Peaceful New Year to you from Germany
My absolute favourite Decca cover is the UK cover of Kyung-Wha Chung Walton/Stravinsky VC’s. After so many dull stereotypical cover shots taken of her looking impassive or slightly moody in gardens, out of the blue a fantastic modern informal and candid shot by Clive Barda in the mixing room of her shock/ hilarity next to a slightly bewildered Walton is awesome with some lovely smaller shots from the recording session on the back.
Hi Dave. I want to congratulate you for treating the CD covers in your channel as they deserve. Since I was a child, when I used to listen to my father's LP's, while the music was playing, I used to fantasize about the great covers of many of them. Now I no longer fantasize, but many times when I buy a cd, if I was, or I am undecided by a version or another of the same work, I choose to buy it for the quality and design of its cover according to my tastes. I hope to see many many videos on the subject. Best regards from the other side of the Atlantic.
I'll never forget the LP cover of Previn's first "Belshazzar's Feast", featuring a voluptuous belly dancer. I bought it as a teen. The music was good too...
I've held on to my copy of that LP.....
@@HassoBenSoba So have I 😁
Great idea Dave. I mostly remember the album contents by its cover. The content and relevance of the cover doesn’t matter, as long as it interesting and memorable.
I love the idea! I was born in 1963, and I remember looking at that album cover, which was part of my parents' collection. Perhaps I am a low brow, but album covers influence my purchases.
They do mine, too. Before I started listening to Dave, I avoided Naxos. And I always hated DGG's gaudy gold marquee slapped on every cover. I'm glad to see they've finally jettisoned that.
Anybody familiar with the book Classique? It show cases Cassical Music LP cover art from the 1950s to the early 80s. The photos come a German record collector and cover a broad swath of labels, works, and orchestras( though interestingly no Mahler) My favorite section is at the end, where it displays an exhaustive amount of record labels themselves from top lines like Columbia Masterworks,London, Angel and their corresponding budget versions like Oydessey,London Treasury and Seraphim. They show Vox, Turnabout and Candide. Brings back a lot of happy memories from my LP buying days.
I would love to see this book.
@robhaynes4410 the full title is Classique: Cover Art for Classical Music by Horst Scherg. They have it for 69.95$ on Abebooks, 24.99$ on Biblio, and 72$ on Amazon,
All used copies I believe.
Yes please! New to your channel and I still love buying and playing CDs.
Hello Dave and all readers and contributors...Happy New Year 2024....a new year that will bring us new exciting and wonderful Videos from Dave, The Chairman of the Board of all TH-cam People. This new series on covers is a great idea...and yes, covers may influence the purchase of an album. The LP era might have been the best in this area. I remember buying the Karl Richter box sets of Bach Kantaten and Xmas Oratorio, on Archive Produktion (late 80s)...the boxes were so beautiful (even the Oratorio's one, that had no picture)...I mean, the cloth-like texture, the color, and the booklets, full of information on the music, the texts, the performers and the instruments...I do not think they are available on LP anymore...but, who knows. As for the cover of Bolero, well, it's a bit weird to me, but the funny thing is that this "Carmen" looks a lot like a friend of mine...I know it is not her because she does not smoke, haha...great video, great series! So much fun and...let's have a great 2024!! A hug! Guillermo Villacorta.
That’s a match, not a cigarette….an even more provocative image!
I going to like this series. I have an extensive Flickr stream of my entire LP collection. One of my time faves is the Steinberg/Boston Planets. Then of course, there is the humorous Westminster "Buck Rogers" cover for the Boult/Vienna Planets.
Yes, one of my favorites; yes,I bought it...
Another Bolero cover that I found striking, was the original cover for Munch's Bolero on RCA. All red, with yellow lettering, and a colorful pitcture of just legs in a gauzy dress.
RCA did some classy cover and album designs. Again Munch, the first Daphnis & Chloe issue with not only cover art but an entire booklet of design by Andy Warhol. They did something similar with Munch's album of Prokofiev Romeo excerpts. The initial issue of Respighi tone poems with Toscanini featured a rotogravure style book of Roman scenes. And none of these were in the deluxe Soria series.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, DAVE !!! Always liked the album cover of the LP issue of Stravinsky's A SOLDIER'S TALE on DG. It featured The Boston Symphony Chamber Players with narration by John Gielgud and the devil played by Ron Moody and the soldier by Tom Courtenay. A cartoonish figure of the devil thumbing his nose at everyone. Thanks Dave, this will be an interest subject for future videos.
I loved the Westminster Gold album covers from the 1970s.
Many of Dutton Epoch’s neglected 20th century british music surveys actually uses witty and humorous old british posters as covers, quite intriguing.
My favorite Westminster Gold cover was the one for "Götterdämmerung" - about as clever a visual pun as anyone ever concocted.
Another fave was the LP cover of the Bernstein/NY Philharmonic "La Mer" featuring a winsome young woman with flowers in her hair...
A great subject! I was always drawn to album covers and when I started collecting often bought a record because of the album cover. I was usually attracted by paintings, like Canaletto's souvenirs of Venice and such. I bought a record of Yehudi Menuhin conducting Schubert's Great C Major symphony, because I liked the painting on the cover. I still am drawn to paintings on covers. I've noticed recently the impact of artsy pop music album covers on Classical recordings, especially on Alpha, and the "artsy" attempts at portraits, such as the really weird images of François Xavier Roth on his covers, which I think are rather pretentious. You can see how much DG is focusing on the artist rather than the music - all those fancy photo shoots of the performers. My step daughter, who has been collecting vinyl (well over 100 lps now; apparently there's a growth in sales of physical product recently, with lps outselling cds; and they're so expensive!), likes to display the albums on her walls.
I think with regards to showcasing the performer rather than the composer, except in the case of new or newly-promoted, obscure repertoire (or occasionally, new, SIGNIFICANT musicology about a work), in a world where 100 recordings of a work already exist, what else could the label and performer possibly be promoting, other than the performer? All the pretense about elevating the composer, with the performer modestly taking a secondary role, is so much BS when it comes to releasing an album, because in most cases they wouldn't be bothering to release the album in the first place except to promote their own careers. Surely nobody needs that particular album to be able to hear the piece in a decent performance. And since that's what everyone is actually doing, nobody should be shy about it.
Furthermore, composers don't create music. They create inspiration and instructions for performers to make music. But it's the performers who have to actually bring it to life. So any piece of music, unless you are content to stare at the sheet music, is a co-equal collaboration between composer and performer.
@@ModusVivendiMedia Yes, your point is well taken, though that’s not quite what I see in many of the photos of these performers. If you compare covers with Angela Hewitt’s photos, or Rachel Barton Pine’s and those of, say Francois Xavier Roth’s, or Bruce Liu’s, there’s something different that’s being said about the performers.
@@smurashige They're all just portrait photos. The only particular difference I see between the two sets of examples you gave is that a) one group is women, the other men, and b) the women are either smiling or giving a hint of a smile, and the men usually look more serious. Other than that, I really don't see what you're getting at. Portrait photographers all have different styles and try various creative things to try to express the personality or charm of the subject. I don't honestly see what's weird or pretentious about them, or different from classical album artist portraits 50-70 years ago. (Unless I'm somehow missing the "weird" and "pretentious" album covers you're thinking of.)
@@ModusVivendiMedia Fair enough.
I was just pondering last night how much I like some record labels' series designs, for instance, the Philips Silver Line CDs with the medium grey backgrounds, the red inner trays and the silver lettering and diagonal lines. Those are so attractive and classy. And how much I hate certain other ones, such as those abysmal CBS Great Performances newspaper headline abominations.
Bernstein's Sibelius: Symphony No. 4/ Swan of Tuonela/ New York Philharmonic LP. I picked it up at the library as a child, because the art and even the typeface was so spooky and mysterious looking. Changed my life and it's why I'm here.
I would nominate the covers for the Sibelius/Boston recordings with Sir Colin Davis. They used Edvard Munch very well.
I grew up in the 50s and remember the beautiful full-color albums coming in when stereo arrived, and record companies wanted to announce the new sounds. (as I remember it they put the same pictures on their mono releases of the same music, doing some misleading marketing) Sometimes there would be no identifying words at on the front, just the beautiful picture. The one that springs to mind is Deep River, the Robert Shaw Chorale doing spirituals to perfection.
Favorite cover that made me buy the album was 'Invitation To The Dance' with Eugene Ormandy on Columbia Records with works by Weber Saint-Saens etc.. I didn't know the works at the time but I wasn't disappointed, still my favorite...
Bolero LP cover by Lorin Maazel from Angel(EMI) is as good(?) as it gets.
That label had a art department headed by Marvin Schwartz. I loved their cover art in every aspects. Good pictures and compositions, and neat artworks along with beautiful color schemes.
Best graphics!
Dave would get banned from TH-cam with that one, lol.
I LOVE THIS IDEA! I'm very much into the design element of classical releases. I'm always bummed out when you read the contents of a big box from its book rather than going through the original album jackets. Maybe I spent too many years working in record shops, ogling the product all day.
Didn't Columbia have the most reliably awful graphic design in the 60s? Not just their classical; look at Ray Conniff, Percy Faith, Dave Brubeck, Andy Williams... Yeesh. You can tell it was all the same staff that did the classical, too. All that said, I do enjoy this Ravel disc. It looks more like 1950s Columbia, which was better. Her hair is amazing.
Looking forward to more in this series!
That beautiful photograph is by Melvin Sokolsky (1933-2022) originally for the magazine Harper's Bazaar. Pretty sure that is supposed to be a lit match in her mouth, not a cigarette.
Same difference.
What a good idea. I associate Vaughn Williams music with bucolic English landscapes and don't know if I would enjoy them as much in a plain grey cover, though that is what streaming is.. Back in the day, opera recordings were opulent box sets that promised so much. I particularly liked the Karajan/Leontyne Price Carmen, done in red and yellow with gorgeous notes; and the Solti/Crespin Rosenkavalier, with the box wrapped in silver paper with a raised sliver rose and Jugendstil decorated notes within. They represented a lot of lawn mowing and pet sitting, too but were worth it.
London Records charged a dollar extra for that Rosenkavalier booklet but it was well worth it. I no longer have the silver foil lp box but I kept the booklet. The cd packaging was utilitarian in comparison.
Alex Steinweiss's covers for early Columbia and some Remington records are genius. And they increased sales astronomically.
Do you have that Westminister Gold Walkerie album cover? It is the one with the VW hubcaps. If you know it, you know it and sex sells.
I always loved the SMELL of the early Mercury Living Presence records!
When I was a lad, I always tried to figure out what "margin control" was supposed to mean on all of their labels.
You want to see a recent "sex sells" cover, check out Julie Fuchs' "Amade," a collection of Mozart arias.
Luckily, she can sing, too.
If my fortunes turn around, I look forward to going back to physical CDs and the occasional LP (for old time's sake). In the meantime, though, at least Idagio has a "Booklet" button for those companies that provide PDFs. It's stunning, though, how many don't. But PDFs cannot replace the feel of a back cover or booklet in hand while listening to an album.
Forgot to point out that jazz covers used to be so much cooler than the self-indulgent promo shots you get nowadays. Check out Sonny Clark's "Cool Struttin'" to see what I mean.
Thanks Dave, great idea for a series, please continue with this! I'm sure that over the years I have been influenced in buying records/CD by the covers, a fitting cover gives you the impression that the product is a thing of beauty. For another record cover that is an icon of sexiness, how about the Angel LP of Previn's LSO Rachmaninov Second, with two (at least) people lying in bed?
perfect album to start this topic. a smoker!
Only one cover?? I thought you'd have at least 10. I use to buy records just because of the cover. The visuals were a big part of the fun. Especially classical records were often the cover was graced with a great painting. The graphic design could be thrilling! Jazz albums too! All music. Id put this cover in my conedy bin. Along with , say, Birgit Nillsson. I loved the NYP series of Bernstein Mahler albums. The famous photo of Stravinsky pushing up his glasses in his Rite of Spring album. Some were worth framing.
Dave, would you please review the movie "Tar" and "Maestro". I would like to know what you think on pop culture takes on classical subjects.
Furthermore, I would consider the Bolero cover to be classic camp. A fat cry from, say, that great cover of the Wave on the Boulez La Mer album. Another cover that I loved were the lilies on the Das Klagende Lied with Boulez. The 60's were uniquely visual. Think "Yellow Submarine". If you had eyes, there was alot of exciting stuff.
I have no interest in either film, not because I'm turning up my nose, but because I just don't care about the subjects.
I always thought that Ormandy and Bernstein had the best LP covers.
It worked. Ormandy's Bolero cover was not a bust.
Well let's get to those shocking Wagner orchestral disks RCA made with Edo de Waart. You know the ones! Parsifal, Tristan und Isolde, The RIng. I know I bought them because of the arresting visuals. Just like decades ago I bought many Westminster Gold LPs. Yes, art work matters. I would never have bought the Mehta recording of Schmidt's 4th if it hadn't been for the Klimt painting Death and Life on the London cover.
I covered those in my "worst covers" videos.
I grew up with the Ravel cover as a kid and always put it in the same category as cover for Herb Alpert's "Peaches and Cream." These were albums bought by older siblings and seemed, at first, as part of their way of trying to be cool. Maybe the covers were less an outright temptation than a statement that you weren't afraid to admit its appeal--and that this was also a way of branding the product as fit for "real men," like a "bracing" after-shave or the manlier brew of Ballantine Ale. The classical department has no monopoly on the kind of merchandising that stereotypes both content and consumer. Now that some examples of this seem outrageously dated, we enjoy them as a form of kitsch.
In a very different vein was the cover art on Bernstein's Columbia recordings of Mahler symphonies 2-5, the collages by Barbara Hatch. I still don't fully understand the meanings of all the visual components, but the configurations always struck me a compatible with the music in a way seldom approached on other covers. I sometimes tried to imagine collages that could have been done for the later symphonies, but that might not have worked out. Since the collages are more attuned to the "Jugendstil" character of Mahler's earlier symphonies, a different sensibility might have been needed for what came later. These covers were more interesting than photos of performers, which usually seemed formulaic (even the look of Bernstein in creative frenzy). Artist shots seldom were as good some of the Francis Wolff shots for Blue Note's jazz classics.
If you ever decide to follow this series up with one devoted to the least effective album covers of all time, I'd like to suggest any recording of Verdi's Otello showing the tenor in blackface.
That's a pretty good suggestion!
I like this category! Album covers often led me to a purchase. I can think of several off the top of my head. Should be very interesting. Hello, Finster! or is it Phinster?
Finster.
Nice one Dave. Why not do a video showing the sexiest album covers in Classical Music? There's gotta be more than this single, exceptional example.
Those early Lara St. John albums. eww.
The cover for Previn’s Rachmaninoff second symphony on Angel has to be on the list for sure!
Off the top of my head, I would say that alpha, Chandos, BIS and cpo consistently have the most beautiful covers in my eyes. Not very sexy, but they give a foretaste of the mood of the music.
Edit: I just realized that all of them are European labels. Take that 'Murica!
I'm a graphic designer and I have an obsession for how music is presented visually. It has more impact on how we experience music than we think. From the mid-50s to mid 70s record covers for the great classical labels (Columbia, etc.) used to be beautiful and often quite creative - except DG because of that annoying yellow block.
Smoking? Not exactly. The woman is holding a burning match in her mouth. That makes it all the more original, even surrealistic. This is an image of a hot babe who likes to play with fire! Still more Carmen than anything by Ravel.
I usually like Hyperion's covers. I rather see a painting than the performances faces or something like that.
I suspect pop music has the advantage here. Is there a trashier cover than the Tijuana Brass' Whipped Cream and Other Delights?
No, but we bought it...
Loved it.
Yes: "Clam Dip & Other Delights" by Soul Asylum. Look it up!
What is she smoking? gunpowder?
That Bolero cover has no match! It's smoking alright but not because of any tobacco. Health and Safety wouldn't allow you to do that cover today! 😉
I bought that album with my allowance when I was a kid. I thought either the woman was dumb or Columbia was too cheap to buy her a cigarette.
I don’t think I ever saw an uglier series than those Karajan recordings on DG with all those crummy paintings by his wife😱