Thread: Ugly cover picture

This cover picture is so repulsive that I wonder if it has negatively affected the sales of this CD. I wonder why in the hell they picked this picture. What do you all think? Have you seen similar cases? If yes, please post the cover pictures.

Naxos. Numerous times. They put these modern art pictures on CDs that aren't at all modern music.

You're just gonna laugh at me if I post one though.

For the record Stanley Clark is a fantastic musician. I can't believe he agreed to this silly cover.

None of my examples can top the Biber archeopterix or whatever it is, but I dislike it when a classical musician has an unfortunate mug shot that would have been geeky even during the time it was in style.

Originally Posted by Huilunsoittaja

Naxos. Numerous times. They put these modern art pictures on CDs that aren't at all modern music.

You're just gonna laugh at me if I post one though.

No, do it! We'll laugh at them, not at you!

Originally Posted by Almaviva

No, do it! We'll laugh at them, not at you!

Very well...



(You can probably tell immediately why I care too... )

I think any cover of a BIS label disc with that horrible black frame looks like a ****ing funeral notice. Just awful, makes the music look depressing. I have an earlier incarnation of the Tubin recording below (mine is a tape with his 4th symphony only, but with same cover). It doesn't portray the 4th, at least, well at all - this piece comes across to me as being quite uplifting & filmic.

But - BIS seems to be moving away from the old format recently. I borrowed the Saint-Saens violin concerto disc (second image below) & the image & style is 110 per cent better, imo. This actually looks more modern (in terms of design), easy on the eye, and speaks to the music. Not every piece of classical music sounds like a bloody funeral march!...

Often, just about any of the CD covers with photos of the artists taken look ugly and outdated. The more recent ones done in professional portrait photo studios look better. Member Weston's post #4 above is a typical example.

Naxos covers are not that bad. At least they often have original works of art on a simple cover that surprisingly, make their cover branding easy to spot.

It doesn't get much worse than this

Originally Posted by HarpsichordConcerto

...Naxos covers are not that bad. At least they often have original works of art on a simple cover that surprisingly, make their cover branding easy to spot...

Agreed about Naxos, they do what they can with their limited budget & I actually like things like the Glazunov cover posted by Huilunsoittaja above, the painting is kind of modern & creative, imo. (& Naxos have also brought out some covers with "new" design, like Maestro Petrenko's Shostakovich series). But I suppose it's the music that really counts (don't judge a book by it's cover, as they say, though it's human nature to often do that with many things).

I forgot BIS was now owned by Naxos, thanks for reminding me. But what I said above about the BIS black frame "funeral notice" covers I still stand by. I find them to making the music "look" depressing. It's simply bad design, imo.

& re "outdated" designs, I have found this with some of old vinyl LP covers I buy secondhand. I just got a Prokofiev disc (with Emil Gilels on piano) & the cover is like some of those horrible Stalinist "wedding-cake on steroids" buildings in Moscow - complete with three little children neatly dressed in white in the foreground. I wonder what Prokofiev would say to that? I'd hazard a guess that maybe those buildings in the photo (of maybe 1950's or '60's) would have even been torn down by now???...

I generally dislike musicians on the cover, if only because they so often come out awkwardly. Jiří Bárta's Dvořák cover is, if nothing else, bizarre:

Great music on there, though.

I actually tend to like Naxos' covers. Often it's simply a painting that's pleasant to look at, and really, what more could I ask for? In a lot of cases, I'm not sure there's an obvious subject that should be used. In some cases, of course, it's easy: many of Chandos' recordings of Dvořák's symphonies with Neeme Järvi and the Scottish National Orchestra are paired with Dvořák's tone poems, which have a very clear program; and I like their covers of them.

This is probably the most offensive cover I could find in my collection:



...but only because of that really tacky hatching pattern surrounding the bust.

Originally Posted by Almaviva

This cover picture is so repulsive that I wonder if it has negatively affected the sales of this CD. I wonder why in the hell they picked this picture. What do you all think?...

Maybe I'm saying something already obvious to you, but that Biber cover you posted looks to me to be referring to the interest in flora & fauna during his time (17th-18th centuries?). I think that's when this kind of scientific drawing came a popular thing - eg. imaging previously unknown species. It also speaks to Biber's music, which was apparently kind of bizarre for it's time (I've not heard anything by the man, but some members here have spoken of his stuff as being almost "atonal"). So that's maybe kind of the reason they went with that cover, maybe in some ways it is appropriate? Looking at that bird, it looks like it might just have been "made up," perhaps not a "real" species at all? But yes, there were many more kind of tasteful or conventional (more scientific, less "arty") botanical/animal drawings during that period of discovery/voyages, I remember seeing an exhibition of Sir Joseph Banks' drawings here (he came out here with Captain James Cook) & they were much more easy on the eye...

Originally Posted by HarpsichordConcerto

Often, just about any of the CD covers with photos of the artists taken look ugly and outdated. The more recent ones done in professional portrait photo studios look better. Member Weston's post #4 above is a typical example.

Naxos covers are not that bad. At least they often have original works of art on a simple cover that surprisingly, make their cover branding easy to spot.

Ha ha these remind me of this site:

http://awkwardclassicalmusicphotos.com/

I love the old BIS covers - tastes differ.

No excuse for these Bruckner 5's though:





or this Schnittke monstrosity

Originally Posted by Art Rock

...or this Schnittke monstrosity

That looks like to be more kind of appropriate for something like Scheonberg's Pierrot Lunaire (which I love totally, btw). Especially with regards to that work's connection with clowns (the commedia dell'Arte) & a kind of nightmare feel (the open mouth there makes me think of screaming, like Edvard Munch's famous The Scream painting). But the colours red & blue rarely go together well, imo, esp. if they're that bright/strong...