Best looking CD/LP for sleeve & artwork

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

The Dorati cover doesn't do much for me; however, I really like the Naxos and think it's hurt by the Naxos design, i.e., occupying less than half of a CD cover. If I had that painting as a full-sized LP cover, I might hang it on my wall.

(Not sure it actually says, 'Bartok' to me, but that's another matter.)


Anybody know the painter?

Agree about the Naxos Mandarin. The painting is in fact about the Miraculous Mandarin specifically. Didn't know and can't believe it.
As for the Dorati, by the standard of extant classical recordings in the market, I think the cover is hip.


https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/sketch-for-il-mandarino-meraviglioso-by-b-bartok-enrico-prampolini-1894-1956/_gGCdQGdxBFW3A

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

P.s. I don't like covers with a tilted original art either.

[Irons]

Supraphon LP covers can be unusual and interesting.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

[pjme]

Anybody know the painter?

Not sure which cover you are referring to.

The Point classics cd surely has a work by Kandinsky : Murnau street with women (1908).
The Naxos cd has a scenery design by  Enrico Prampolini / La Scala 1942 Fondo A. Milloss Fotografie M058
Il Mandarino Meraviglioso


More photos at
https://archivi.cini.it/teatromelodramma/search/result.html?personeHist_autocomplete=%22Prampolini%2C+Enrico%22&archiveName_string=teatromelodrammaxDamsHist003

The Mercury / Dorati disc I find ..uninteresting...

The old Rabaud/Marouf discs (ca 1976) are charming - inspired by Beardsley or Erté?

[ritter]

...
The Naxos cd has a scenery design by  Enrico Prampolini / La Scala 1942 Fondo A. Milloss Fotografie M058
Il Mandarino Meraviglioso


More photos at
https://archivi.cini.it/teatromelodramma/search/result.html?personeHist_autocomplete=%22Prampolini%2C+Enrico%22&archiveName_string=teatromelodrammaxDamsHist003

...

Very interesting, Peter! I hadn't encountered the name of Prampolini until now.

[pjme]

I hadn't encountered the name of Prampolini until now.

Well, neither had I.
But I enjoy doing some research . I did not know that that performance in Milan was the first staged one.

[pjme]

He's really a most interesting figure:

Prampolini and futurism

Prampolini + Guggenheim

Prampolini and pantomime

Mandarino meraviglioso 1942

[ritter]

He's really a most interesting figure:

Indeed. What I've seen of Prampolini looks very appealing. His star seems to have faded because (as so many of his contemporaries) he apparently flirted with fascism. But to see The Miraculous Mandarin fully staged at La Scala in 1942, with such "daring" decors, confirms that artistic conditions must have been rather different in Italy at the time compared to Nazi Germany.

Other names that come to mind as interesting Italian set designers of those years are Alberto Savino (Giorgio de Chirico's brother) and, to a lesser extent, Gianni Vagnetti.

 
I will read with interest those links you provided, Peter. Thanks!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I always liked this cover.

[pjme]

Dare I say that I'm underwhelmed by this attempt at artistic multi tasking...
Surely, it wasn't an easy command to combine Petrushka with Le sacre....but for my taste too much is going on.


Guy Billout (thought it was Milton Glaser...)



Jacques Emile Blanche

[pjme]

Petrushka often fares better...imho

[Symphonic Addict]

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I think Bartok Piano Concertos have some nice covers as well.
I like the 2nd cover. I remember some members (maybe Iron) wrote that the last recording from Vox/Turnabout is a fine recording.

[pjme]

That Turnabout Janacek/Honegger/Stravinsky/Bartok has fascinated me since my youth. A mixed bag that worked very well for me. The performances lack now in sonic splendour, I suppose, but the LP proved a good introduction and guide.
Moreover the  Picasso painting ( Famille de saltimbanques) was another discovery.

Brueghel-Beethoven ... why not?
Buniatishvili has the looks of a model, but I simply don't like covers that give more attention to the performer than the composer....

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I think Bartok Piano Concertos have some nice covers as well.
I like the 2nd cover. I remember some members (maybe Iron) wrote that the last recording from Vox/Turnabout is a fine recording.

I love the one with the lion in it; trying to remember where I've seen that cover before?  Perhaps someone mentioned it in the vinyl thread some years ago?

PD

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I love the one with the lion in it; trying to remember where I've seen that cover before?  Perhaps someone mentioned it in the vinyl thread some years ago?

PD

Sleeping Gypsy by Henri Rousseau.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

That Turnabout Janacek/Honegger/Stravinsky/Bartok has fascinated me since my youth. A mixed bag that worked very well for me. The performances lack now in sonic splendour, I suppose, but the LP proved a good introduction and guide.
Moreover the  Picasso painting ( Famille de saltimbanques) was another discovery.

Brueghel-Beethoven ... why not?
Buniatishvili has the looks of a model, but I simply don't like covers that give more attention to the performer than the composer....

Yes these Vox/Turnabout recordings are decent recordings. Some Vox recordings are vg, I think.

[SimonNZ]

 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

 

Is this like a Zen master's question?