Favorite album covers

[Leo K]

I love a well thought out design for an album cover, and sometimes I just love the cover art because the music inside is so good.  Whatever the reason, it is fun to consider cover art design.  Especially in collecting Mahler recordings.  In this first post I''ll take a look at designs that aim to tie a series of recordings together.


The Abbado Mahler cycle has a consistant, simple concept...concentrating on fonts and color mostly, but I love the minimal approach.  The front and back are easy to read and the muted pastel color on each release reminds me of cloudy, post-storm weather:




I really love the look of the BBC Legends series.  The photographs, transparent color and Modrian-like layout are combined into an solid architectural grid.  I love the simple font used to announce the performer's last name, and I love the fact the name is always in lowercase. The color combinations are endless:




I love the various painted portraits of Mahler found on some of the Michael Gielen releases.  It's too bad they couldn't extend this concept for all the CD covers in Gielen's cycle, which also feature artists such as van Gogh and William Blake, and photos of the maestro:




Back in 1991, I started to buy Bernstein's DG Mahler cycle because I was intriqued by the paintings used in the cover design...the images created a mystery and led me to wonder about the music.  I later saw the work of this artist in a gallery in Minneapolis.  I love the use of the surrounding white, creating the perfect frame for the images and providing a space for the titles...love the font also:



Anyone else have favorites?

[John Kim]

My favorites are Levine's recordings of M3rd, M7th, and M10th on RCA. The colorful paintings on the covers are very descriptive of each work in terms of cartoon figures, e.g., wild animals in the forest (M3rd), night goblins (M7th), and the surroundings. I also like profiles of Mahler himself that are inserted on each cover. I know these are also Barry's favorite CD covers.

John,

[Vatz Relham]

Here are a few I think are cool, and musically ggod too!!

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Vatz

[Vatz Relham]

Lets try this again.....


Vatz

[Vatz Relham]

Third time lucky?









Vatz

[barry guerrero]

I think the Mehta/IPO M6 cover is my favorite.  I like the Maurice Sendak cover on the James Levine/CSO M3. I can't find an image of it on the web, though.

Barry

[barry guerrero]

I always liked the original cover to Bernstein's London M8. I think it's a great performance, too. You got to look at it up close:



I think the original cover to Karajan's first Mahler 9th looks very appropriate:



And here's my vote for the ugliest Mahler cover:

[barry guerrero]

Here's my vote for the worst Mahler hair styles. It's also a shockingly poor "DLvdE". Norman's first one with Colin Davis was far better.



I did find two of the three Maurice Sendak covers:

[Leo K]

I really love those Maurice Sendak covers too...I have Levine's M7 and M10 but I haven't found his M3 yet in the used stores here in Tucson.

Those original LP covers are great...I haven't seen those in the vinyl shops here. 

My votes for worst Mahler hairstyles are :

[Wunderhorn]

Putting Mahler and Klimt together have been most profitable for record companies, as not only did they share their first names, but were friends. Though my favorite album cover is my user image by Erte called 'Autumn' of Bernstein/Vienna M5.

[barry guerrero]

Gunther Herbig's M9 has a view of old Vienna, looking towards the Prater.

[Toblacher]

Do I see Harry Lime in the photo on that Herbig cover?

[Eric Nagamine]

I really love those Maurice Sendak covers too...I have Levine's M7 and M10 but I haven't found his M3 yet in the used stores here in Tucson.

Those original LP covers are great...I haven't seen those in the vinyl shops here. 

The CD issues don't do the Sendak covers justice, especially the 3rd which has some wonderful detail. The cover has appeared in poster form in a collection of Sendak art, but it's been long out of print.

Besides the Levine 3rd, the Bernstein/DG Erte Covers and those others which have used Klimt's art are favorites. BTW, the Klimt's have to be seen in person. No album cover does justice to the brilliance of the colors in his work.

--------------
Eric Nagamine

[barry guerrero]

"BTW, the Klimt's have to be seen in person. No album cover does justice to the brilliance of the colors in his work"

A truer statement has never made - you must believe what Eric is saying here. I've yet to see even one reproduction that begins to do them justice.

[Ivor]

    Probably my favourite is the Westminster cover for M7/Scherchen.

    Mostly because it was the first Mahler I ever heard and played.

    Partly because it is actually a rather startlingly arresting design of Mahler minus all the backgroung of the '07 photo on the left of  a plain white cover. The work and performer details also on the white,on the right. (I haven't got hold of the clever techno stuff to put the cover in here.)




     Ivor