Henryk Wieniawski / Alexander Glazunov: Violin Concerto No. 2 In D Minor / Violin Concerto In A Minor (1965); Ida Haendel, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Václav Smetácek. Artwork: Morning Star (1902).
Continuing an occasional series about artists or designers whose work has been used on record sleeves. Note that this is a selection of works by Alphonse Mucha only. Pastiches of the Mucha style are plentiful, and some—like Barney Bubbles’ cover for Space Ritual by Hawkwind—are very familiar, but I’ll leave it to someone else to go looking for those.
Gypsy (1970) by Gypsy. Artwork: La Plume: Zodiac (1896).
Dvorák: Slavonic Dances (1993); Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Václav Talich.
Mucha is one of the most celebrated of all Czech artists so it’s no surprise his work appears on releases from Czech label Supraphon. This is one of a series of orchestral recordings that use a Mucha postage stamp for the cover art.
Frames Of Teknicolor (front, 2000) by The Mirror Reveals. Artwork: Princezna Hyacinta (1911).
Frames Of Teknicolor (back, 2000) by The Mirror Reveals. Artwork: Clio (1900).
Divinity (2001) by The Mirror Reveals. Artwork: Salon Des Cent (1897).
Krautrock (2005) by Various Artists. Artwork: Job (1896).
The cover of a six-disc collection that all use the same cropped poster design as artwork. The term “Krautrock” is here stretched to breaking point by the inclusion of clumsy German rockers like Birth Control, Frumpy, Grobschnitt and others, none of whom are ever included in the Kosmische canon by aficionados. Look for the Soul Jazz collections (here and here) instead.
Leopold Godowsky: Piano Music (2006); Rian De Waal. Artwork: Poetry (1898).
Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, Franck: French Chamber Classics (2007). Artwork: Salon Des Cent (1896).
Dvorák: Slavonic Dances (2009). Artwork: The Celebration of Svantovit (1912).
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The album covers archive
Great source material, uniformly awful covers.