Matching visual arts with music: cd covers.

[piston]

For labels such as Hypérion, a particular recording offers an opportunity to creatively match visual arts with music. In the case of A. Scriabin's preludes, for example, the producers opted for a painting by Louis Walden Hawkins, "Auréoles," which conveys both the spiritual and the erotic sides of several of the Russian composer's pieces. It's really beautiful, just like the preludes. I wonder if you would contribute other examples of what you view as a perfect match between visual arts and music.

[Gary]

Don't have a particular example to show, but many of the paintings by either Fragonard or Boucher suit Mozart to perfection.

[Ralph]

Here's a beauty:

[Gary]

Who was the painter, Ralph?

[xiaopv]

Debussy's Nocturnes by Bernard Haitink, Philips 400 023-2

The cover is a paint by J.A.M. Whistler called "Nocturne in Blue and Silver".

[Wallingford]

No commercial reissue CD labels have thought of putting his output on digital disc, but I'm presently duping for a new buddy (out in the UK) my entire collection of ALFRED HERTZ/SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY recordings from the late 20s. No better cover art would equal this:
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641 ... 31,00.html

[Ralph]

Who was the painter, Ralph?

*****

I'll check tomorrow. Too cold to go downstairs now.

[Haydnseek]

Two Mahler cycles:

Bernstein's DG series used a series of illustrations by Erté on white background to great effect.

Likewise, Philips used a series of prints by Oskar Kokoschka on a woodgrain background for their not quite complete cycle by Haitink.

The typefaces on both sets are also well-chosen.

The two series of illustrations are quite different in style but they both match facets of Mahler's music.

[piston]

I do not mean to insult anybody. I rely on Google's "Images" rather than "Web" to copy a picture's url. I bet that everybody knows this already but, just in case, it's free info.

[piston]

No commercial reissue CD labels have thought of putting his output on digital disc, but I'm presently duping for a new buddy (out in the UK) my entire collection of ALFRED HERTZ/SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY recordings from the late 20s. No better cover art would equal this:
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641 ... 31,00.html

It's mighty ... convincing

[Lance]

No commercial reissue CD labels have thought of putting his output on digital disc, but I'm presently duping for a new buddy (out in the UK) my entire collection of ALFRED HERTZ/SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY recordings from the late 20s. No better cover art would equal this:
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641 ... 31,00.html

Totally agree! What an outstanding digital reproduction of a 1927 cover! Go for it!

[Gary]

[piston]

The Great Gate of Kiev




But is it a great artistic match with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition?
Victor Alexandrovich Hartmann "was an architect and designer of ordinary talent," wrote Alfred Frankestein, the individual who discovered the very "tableaux" (in the late 1930s) that inspired Mussorgsky to write his famous piano pieces. These pictures are "actually not paintings at all, at least in the ordinary sense of that word. Many are architectural drawings." In this instance, then, Mussorgsky made the drawings greater than they are, thereby immortalizing his dear friend who died at the age of 39.

[karlhenning]

. . . These pictures are "actually not paintings at all, at least in the ordinary sense of that word. Many are architectural drawings."

The Gate is certainly an architectural drawing. But the drawing which Musorgsky rendered as the Ballet of the Chicks in Their Shells was a costume design, and I believe the Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba Yaga) was a design for a clock.

At any rate, Musorgsky's title is perfectly accurate: Pictures (not "Paintings") at an Exhibition.

Cheers,
~Karl

[piston]

. . . These pictures are "actually not paintings at all, at least in the ordinary sense of that word. Many are architectural drawings."

The Gate is certainly an architectural drawing. But the drawing which Musorgsky rendered as the Ballet of the Chicks in Their Shells was a costume design, and I believe the Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba Yaga) was a design for a clock.

At any rate, Musorgsky's title is perfectly accurate: Pictures (not "Paintings") at an Exhibition.

Cheers,
~Karl

In that case, the English language has proven more accurate than the French title: Tableaux d'une exposition. You're correct about "The Hut": Hartmann designed a clock in the form of Baba Yaga's hut, "the Russian witch who lives on human bones which she grinds up in a mortar and pestle; she also uses the mortor to ride through the sky."

[karlhenning]

In that case, the English language has proven more accurate than the French title: Tableaux d'une exposition.

Tableau is "picture"; peinture is "painting," yes?

Cheers,
~Karl

[johnshade]

-
I actually own this cd. Not bad. It is the most bizarre cover I've ever seen.

[karlhenning]

No, that's not bizarre; it's just plain unattractive.

Cheers,
~Karl

[piston]

In that case, the English language has proven more accurate than the French title: Tableaux d'une exposition.

Tableau is "picture"; peinture is "painting," yes?

Cheers,
~Karl

Perhaps, though "tableau" is both picture and painting. On the other hand, from English to French, picture is mainly translated as image and gravure. Let's not forget that there only existed the music until A. Frankenstein found the drawings and sketches some fifty years later. IMHO people who heard "Tableaux d'une exposition" before these sketches/drawings became public knowledge had something else in mind than this


But that's just a guess.
Cheers

[karlhenning]

In that case, the English language has proven more accurate than the French title: Tableaux d'une exposition.

Tableau is "picture"; peinture is "painting," yes?

Perhaps, though "tableau" is both picture and painting.

"Tableau" is picture, and it is (for instance) scene (as that of a stage work). I don't think that there is anything inherent to tableau to imply painting on canvas, e.g.

IMHO people who heard "Tableaux d'une exposition" before these sketches/drawings became public knowledge had something else in mind than this

Well, that's an easy guess; no one could visualize any work of art, that they have not already seen, just from hearing its "depiction" in music.

And if people have in mind "canvas" when all that was said is "picture," the misprision lies in the receiver, not the transmitter :-)

Cheers,
~Karl

[RebLem]

It doesn't seem to be around anymore, but I remember the LP issue of Bernstein's recording of Bloch's Sacred Service had a phot of Chagall's Rabbi of Vitebsk on it, which I thought was appropriate.

[piston]

Yes!



And this Chagall was also on a Bartok LP of his Sonata for pianos and percussion:



But I don't think his "Midsummer's Night Dream" was appropriate for Mendelsohn's music, so I will refrain from posting it here

[Haydnseek]

Chuck Jones and Ravel

[piston]

good ones!

[jserraglio]

[soylentgreen]

These were the first few albums I managed to get my little hands on.
When starting my classical collection as a kid in the late 70s I was quite drawn these CBS Masterworks...something about the newspaper motif was captivating...and look at that planets - "HOLST THE PLANETS"..I get chills to this day.



Of course, all three performances above became the standards by which others were measure....to date, I've never heard the 'Vltava' performed as beautifully as Szell and Cleveland did.

The idyllic covers for the Jarvi/Gothenburg Grieg works on DG appeal greatly to my pastoral side(unfortunately, I couldn't locate a pic of the best one for his Symphony in C!)...
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More recently in my collection...this line for the works of Bax are subtle and have that sleek chic contempo feel, but the simplicity and layout is what appeals to me. Chandos always has such lush covers, especially the ones for that burst of underappreciated 20th century Brit composers they rolled out in the early 90s. The Shostakovitch, while a bit obvious, is none the less striking and to the point.
- - -

While one of many Nevsky's I have, this one always makes me chuckle. The ultimate marketing attempt bridging classical music and fighting video games....Mortal Prokofiev Kombat...

[Sergeant Rock]

I wonder if you would contribute other examples of what you view as a perfect match between visual arts and music.

A perfect match:




Sarge

[Gary]