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CD covers
Posted by Barry Cronin on April 2, 2024, 3:41 pm
The current thread re Mäkelä's and Rouvali's Sibelius has got me thinking about CD covers. I know I'm taking a chance here, possibly outing myself as the only philistine in a den of intellectuals and aesthetes, but here goes anyway... I will readily admit that I do judge a CD by its cover, and I'd love to know if anyone else does, or is brave enough to admit it! Re the Mäkelä and Rouvali Sibelius, I would not, in a million years, buy either of those two recordings, and I'd be pretty miffed if I was even gifted them. Now this is not just because of the pouting and posturing poses on the CD covers, which irritate me immensely - hence this post. I have lots of (in my opinion) great Sibelius symphony recordings already (Barbirolli, Berglund, Karajan, Jarvi, Tuxen, the white Warner historical box), so no matter how good the new kids on the block are, are they really offering me significantly more than the ones I've already got? We all know this critiquing of classical recordings is great fun, but we also all know that it's subjective. The perfect recording of anything is a chimera, though Schneiderhan in Beethoven's Violin Concerto comes close. Likewise, space, time and money are at a premium - I can't infinitely keep adding new recordings, even if I could afford to, because you reach the point where the old stuff never gets a look in, and how do you know you're not missing things in your old favourites, because you are too busy looking for the next big thing? And it's partly the space being at a premium, perhaps, as to why I try to avoid recordings with covers like the above two mentioned. Put simply, I like to be surrounded by nice things - William Morris's 'beautiful and useful' dictum, if you like. The above two (I'm picking on those but there are many others - Simon Rattle, step forward) are neither useful, in my opinion - certainly no more so than the ones I've already got - and are most definitely not beautiful, though I admit friends and families of the gentlemen may disagree. I know this all sounds superficial, but having given this a little thought, I find recordings with covers like this not just off-putting but actively intrusive - they get between me and the music, the composer. If I had the two Sibelius sets in question, and wanted to listen to a Sibelius symphony, my first thought wouldn't be which symphony shall I listen to, but which between Mäkelä and Rouvali, shall it be, and when their faces are staring out at you - EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU TAKE THEM OFF THE SHELF - they loom larger, it seems to me, than they need to. I'm sure they are both excellent musicians, but in the end I don't care to have it thrust permanently at me. I don't care what they are doing with the music - I care about what the music is doing to me. Of course, I'm a hypocrite, and I have a plenty of recordings in my collection that contradict my argument. I would happily replace George Szell's laser-like sternness on the cover of the Beethoven symphonies - and on the cover of the five sleeves inside! - for some pastoral or romantic scene, but it's not enough for me to not want that set in my collection. Rudolf Kempe is doing his thing on the cover of the box of Strauss orchestral works, but that's not going anywhere, and so on. And it works the other way. I did have the Maazel Sibelius symphony cycle, with the splendid portrait of the young composer, but not liking what I heard of my two favourite symphonies (3 & 6, thanks for asking), to the charity shop it went. Anyway, already too long a post. I'm ready for the barrage of brickbats - what can I say? I decided to play Neeme Jarvi's BIS 'Kullervo' while writing this, with its photograph on the cover of a cool Nordic lake. There's a photograph of the avuncular conductor on the back of the booklet, should I wish to look at it. Mostly, if I look at anything, I look at that photo of the lake.
Re: CD covers
Posted by Len Mullenger on April 2, 2024, 4:13 pm, in reply to "CD covers"
Perhaps you would like us to go back to the 1950s HMVs which had generic covers where only the work titles and artists changed:
Previous Message
The current thread re Mäkelä's and Rouvali's Sibelius has got me thinking about CD covers. I know I'm taking a chance here, possibly outing myself as the only philistine in a den of intellectuals and aesthetes, but here goes anyway... I will readily admit that I do judge a CD by its cover, and I'd love to know if anyone else does, or is brave enough to admit it! Re the Mäkelä and Rouvali Sibelius, I would not, in a million years, buy either of those two recordings, and I'd be pretty miffed if I was even gifted them. Now this is not just because of the pouting and posturing poses on the CD covers, which irritate me immensely - hence this post. I have lots of (in my opinion) great Sibelius symphony recordings already (Barbirolli, Berglund, Karajan, Jarvi, Tuxen, the white Warner historical box), so no matter how good the new kids on the block are, are they really offering me significantly more than the ones I've already got? We all know this critiquing of classical recordings is great fun, but we also all know that it's subjective. The perfect recording of anything is a chimera, though Schneiderhan in Beethoven's Violin Concerto comes close. Likewise, space, time and money are at a premium - I can't infinitely keep adding new recordings, even if I could afford to, because you reach the point where the old stuff never gets a look in, and how do you know you're not missing things in your old favourites, because you are too busy looking for the next big thing? And it's partly the space being at a premium, perhaps, as to why I try to avoid recordings with covers like the above two mentioned. Put simply, I like to be surrounded by nice things - William Morris's 'beautiful and useful' dictum, if you like. The above two (I'm picking on those but there are many others - Simon Rattle, step forward) are neither useful, in my opinion - certainly no more so than the ones I've already got - and are most definitely not beautiful, though I admit friends and families of the gentlemen may disagree. I know this all sounds superficial, but having given this a little thought, I find recordings with covers like this not just off-putting but actively intrusive - they get between me and the music, the composer. If I had the two Sibelius sets in question, and wanted to listen to a Sibelius symphony, my first thought wouldn't be which symphony shall I listen to, but which between Mäkelä and Rouvali, shall it be, and when their faces are staring out at you - EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU TAKE THEM OFF THE SHELF - they loom larger, it seems to me, than they need to. I'm sure they are both excellent musicians, but in the end I don't care to have it thrust permanently at me. I don't care what they are doing with the music - I care about what the music is doing to me. Of course, I'm a hypocrite, and I have a plenty of recordings in my collection that contradict my argument. I would happily replace George Szell's laser-like sternness on the cover of the Beethoven symphonies - and on the cover of the five sleeves inside! - for some pastoral or romantic scene, but it's not enough for me to not want that set in my collection. Rudolf Kempe is doing his thing on the cover of the box of Strauss orchestral works, but that's not going anywhere, and so on. And it works the other way. I did have the Maazel Sibelius symphony cycle, with the splendid portrait of the young composer, but not liking what I heard of my two favourite symphonies (3 & 6, thanks for asking), to the charity shop it went. Anyway, already too long a post. I'm ready for the barrage of brickbats - what can I say? I decided to play Neeme Jarvi's BIS 'Kullervo' while writing this, with its photograph on the cover of a cool Nordic lake. There's a photograph of the avuncular conductor on the back of the booklet, should I wish to look at it. Mostly, if I look at anything, I look at that photo of the lake.
Re: CD covers
Posted by Barry Cronin on April 2, 2024, 4:44 pm, in reply to "Re: CD covers"
Perhaps not, a little effort is always welcome. Take the Hyperion series of British Light Music Classics - splendid discs all round, and I salute Ronald Corp, but would my fondness for those CDs be the same if it was his face looking out at me from four different angles, rather than the evocative artwork chosen?
Previous Message
Perhaps you would like us to go back to the 1950s HMVs which had generic covers where only the work titles and artists changed:
Previous Message
The current thread re Mäkelä's and Rouvali's Sibelius has got me thinking about CD covers. I know I'm taking a chance here, possibly outing myself as the only philistine in a den of intellectuals and aesthetes, but here goes anyway... I will readily admit that I do judge a CD by its cover, and I'd love to know if anyone else does, or is brave enough to admit it! Re the Mäkelä and Rouvali Sibelius, I would not, in a million years, buy either of those two recordings, and I'd be pretty miffed if I was even gifted them. Now this is not just because of the pouting and posturing poses on the CD covers, which irritate me immensely - hence this post. I have lots of (in my opinion) great Sibelius symphony recordings already (Barbirolli, Berglund, Karajan, Jarvi, Tuxen, the white Warner historical box), so no matter how good the new kids on the block are, are they really offering me significantly more than the ones I've already got? We all know this critiquing of classical recordings is great fun, but we also all know that it's subjective. The perfect recording of anything is a chimera, though Schneiderhan in Beethoven's Violin Concerto comes close. Likewise, space, time and money are at a premium - I can't infinitely keep adding new recordings, even if I could afford to, because you reach the point where the old stuff never gets a look in, and how do you know you're not missing things in your old favourites, because you are too busy looking for the next big thing? And it's partly the space being at a premium, perhaps, as to why I try to avoid recordings with covers like the above two mentioned. Put simply, I like to be surrounded by nice things - William Morris's 'beautiful and useful' dictum, if you like. The above two (I'm picking on those but there are many others - Simon Rattle, step forward) are neither useful, in my opinion - certainly no more so than the ones I've already got - and are most definitely not beautiful, though I admit friends and families of the gentlemen may disagree. I know this all sounds superficial, but having given this a little thought, I find recordings with covers like this not just off-putting but actively intrusive - they get between me and the music, the composer. If I had the two Sibelius sets in question, and wanted to listen to a Sibelius symphony, my first thought wouldn't be which symphony shall I listen to, but which between Mäkelä and Rouvali, shall it be, and when their faces are staring out at you - EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU TAKE THEM OFF THE SHELF - they loom larger, it seems to me, than they need to. I'm sure they are both excellent musicians, but in the end I don't care to have it thrust permanently at me. I don't care what they are doing with the music - I care about what the music is doing to me. Of course, I'm a hypocrite, and I have a plenty of recordings in my collection that contradict my argument. I would happily replace George Szell's laser-like sternness on the cover of the Beethoven symphonies - and on the cover of the five sleeves inside! - for some pastoral or romantic scene, but it's not enough for me to not want that set in my collection. Rudolf Kempe is doing his thing on the cover of the box of Strauss orchestral works, but that's not going anywhere, and so on. And it works the other way. I did have the Maazel Sibelius symphony cycle, with the splendid portrait of the young composer, but not liking what I heard of my two favourite symphonies (3 & 6, thanks for asking), to the charity shop it went. Anyway, already too long a post. I'm ready for the barrage of brickbats - what can I say? I decided to play Neeme Jarvi's BIS 'Kullervo' while writing this, with its photograph on the cover of a cool Nordic lake. There's a photograph of the avuncular conductor on the back of the booklet, should I wish to look at it. Mostly, if I look at anything, I look at that photo of the lake.
Re: CD covers
Posted by Jeffrey Lague on April 7, 2024, 5:38 pm, in reply to "Re: CD covers"
Can't say that I take much notice of CD covers but I know that when I first started to collect LPs the lovely pictures that appeared on the covers of many issues - Philips Classical Favourites were particularly enticing in this respect - often determined my choice of which version to buy (and I still find it hard to banish the thought of lovely Autumnal scenes when listening to Brahms because of the influence of those issues). Luckily with such artists as Walter, Beecham, Ormandy, Francescatti and Ormandy among the artists I usually got a pretty good performance for my money too. I still tend to prefer LP issues of opera sets where I don't have to squint my eyes to follow the libretti. Decca's SET issues certainly had some handsomely produced booklets included with the discs.
Re: CD covers
Posted by tuxedo on April 8, 2024, 2:16 pm, in reply to "Re: CD covers"
Jeffrey
Your recollection of LP covers highlights the difference (for the most part) between the design standards of those recording companies and the ones of today.
Interesting, though, that companies now re-issuing those gems of yesteryear often use the original LP covers for the CD. And your comments also brought back a few memories for me.
BTW, good to hear from you again - I do hope you are keeping well.
regards
Re: CD covers
Posted by Ralph Moore on April 2, 2024, 5:17 pm, in reply to "CD covers"
Well, I don't know if you'd corral me with that dubious band of "intellectuals and aesthetes", Barry, but I do indeed agree with you regarding modern marketing reliance upon the "cult of personality", including wistful pictures of conductors staring out at you menacingly, celebrity lady-pianists draped in flesh-revealing/clinging garments consisting of barely enough material to make a decent pair of knickers, or tenors glaring moodily into the middle distance, clad in shirts unbuttoned to the navel. I pretty much ignore covers when reviewing - and sometimes even the notes, if they are pretentious or tendentious - and do so also to try to avoid any accusation that my review is a cunning amalgam of those and Wikipedia. Mind you; this goes back a long, well beyond Karajan - famously depicted on the cover of the EMI "Ein Heldenleben" recording in a leather jacket with a strategically placed beam of light emanating from his crotch - and we must remember that many people are now conditioned to respond to that style of marketing- baffling though it is, to me.
I still think that some punters might prefer the different approach and the superior digital sound on Mäkelä's and Rouvali's Sibelius recordings, but increasingly some selling methods strike me as crass and desperate - but sometimes we reviewers remark on that.
There are are also some famously awful and amusing classical CD covers you can look up here on YouTube:
Previous Message
The current thread re Mäkelä's and Rouvali's Sibelius has got me thinking about CD covers. I know I'm taking a chance here, possibly outing myself as the only philistine in a den of intellectuals and aesthetes, but here goes anyway... I will readily admit that I do judge a CD by its cover, and I'd love to know if anyone else does, or is brave enough to admit it! Re the Mäkelä and Rouvali Sibelius, I would not, in a million years, buy either of those two recordings, and I'd be pretty miffed if I was even gifted them. Now this is not just because of the pouting and posturing poses on the CD covers, which irritate me immensely - hence this post. I have lots of (in my opinion) great Sibelius symphony recordings already (Barbirolli, Berglund, Karajan, Jarvi, Tuxen, the white Warner historical box), so no matter how good the new kids on the block are, are they really offering me significantly more than the ones I've already got? We all know this critiquing of classical recordings is great fun, but we also all know that it's subjective. The perfect recording of anything is a chimera, though Schneiderhan in Beethoven's Violin Concerto comes close. Likewise, space, time and money are at a premium - I can't infinitely keep adding new recordings, even if I could afford to, because you reach the point where the old stuff never gets a look in, and how do you know you're not missing things in your old favourites, because you are too busy looking for the next big thing? And it's partly the space being at a premium, perhaps, as to why I try to avoid recordings with covers like the above two mentioned. Put simply, I like to be surrounded by nice things - William Morris's 'beautiful and useful' dictum, if you like. The above two (I'm picking on those but there are many others - Simon Rattle, step forward) are neither useful, in my opinion - certainly no more so than the ones I've already got - and are most definitely not beautiful, though I admit friends and families of the gentlemen may disagree. I know this all sounds superficial, but having given this a little thought, I find recordings with covers like this not just off-putting but actively intrusive - they get between me and the music, the composer. If I had the two Sibelius sets in question, and wanted to listen to a Sibelius symphony, my first thought wouldn't be which symphony shall I listen to, but which between Mäkelä and Rouvali, shall it be, and when their faces are staring out at you - EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU TAKE THEM OFF THE SHELF - they loom larger, it seems to me, than they need to. I'm sure they are both excellent musicians, but in the end I don't care to have it thrust permanently at me. I don't care what they are doing with the music - I care about what the music is doing to me. Of course, I'm a hypocrite, and I have a plenty of recordings in my collection that contradict my argument. I would happily replace George Szell's laser-like sternness on the cover of the Beethoven symphonies - and on the cover of the five sleeves inside! - for some pastoral or romantic scene, but it's not enough for me to not want that set in my collection. Rudolf Kempe is doing his thing on the cover of the box of Strauss orchestral works, but that's not going anywhere, and so on. And it works the other way. I did have the Maazel Sibelius symphony cycle, with the splendid portrait of the young composer, but not liking what I heard of my two favourite symphonies (3 & 6, thanks for asking), to the charity shop it went. Anyway, already too long a post. I'm ready for the barrage of brickbats - what can I say? I decided to play Neeme Jarvi's BIS 'Kullervo' while writing this, with its photograph on the cover of a cool Nordic lake. There's a photograph of the avuncular conductor on the back of the booklet, should I wish to look at it. Mostly, if I look at anything, I look at that photo of the lake.
Re: CD covers
Posted by John Quinn on April 2, 2024, 5:29 pm, in reply to "Re: CD covers"
I would agree with much of what has been said about the 'cult of personality'. All that said, I think it would be a pity to miss the experience of hearing, say, Makela's Sibelius and deciding for oneself whether or not it appeals simply because the cover is off-putting. Another example that springs to mind is Daniil Trifonov's series of Rachmaninov piano concertos made with the Philadelphia Orchestra
Re: CD covers
Posted by Mike Parr on April 2, 2024, 9:17 pm, in reply to "Re: CD covers"
Let us not forget the series of hideous covers which "graced" Edo de Waart's RCA Wagner series of orchestral suites from the operas. They were lovely recordings sabotaged by someone's poor taste and lousy judgddment. The Tristan cover was the worst of the series.
Re: CD covers
Posted by Barry Cronin on April 3, 2024, 12:54 pm, in reply to "Re: CD covers"
Never seen that before. Just had a look at it. Wow. Perfect for a thrash metal album. Maybe somewhere there's a Slayer or Anthrax album with a picture of Wagner at the piano on the cover.
Previous Message
Let us not forget the series of hideous covers which "graced" Edo de Waart's RCA Wagner series of orchestral suites from the operas. They were lovely recordings sabotaged by someone's poor taste and lousy judgddment. The Tristan cover was the worst of the series.
Re: CD covers
Posted by Barry Cronin on April 2, 2024, 7:49 pm, in reply to "Re: CD covers"
Hi, Ralph. To mostly ignore CD covers and notes shows a level of objectivity in reviewing to be commended. As for some of the more bonkers CD covers to be found, they go so far the other way as to be almost desirable again. Note, I said almost.
Previous Message
Well, I don't know if you'd corral me with that dubious band of "intellectuals and aesthetes", Barry, but I do indeed agree with you regarding modern marketing reliance upon the "cult of personality", including wistful pictures of conductors staring out at you menacingly, celebrity lady-pianists draped in flesh-revealing/clinging garments consisting of barely enough material to make a decent pair of knickers, or tenors glaring moodily into the middle distance, clad in shirts unbuttoned to the navel. I pretty much ignore covers when reviewing - and sometimes even the notes, if they are pretentious or tendentious - and do so also to try to avoid any accusation that my review is a cunning amalgam of those and Wikipedia. Mind you; this goes back a long, well beyond Karajan - famously depicted on the cover of the EMI "Ein Heldenleben" recording in a leather jacket with a strategically placed beam of light emanating from his crotch - and we must remember that many people are now conditioned to respond to that style of marketing- baffling though it is, to me.
I still think that some punters might prefer the different approach and the superior digital sound on Mäkelä's and Rouvali's Sibelius recordings, but increasingly some selling methods strike me as crass and desperate - but sometimes we reviewers remark on that.
There are are also some famously awful and amusing classical CD covers you can look up here on YouTube:
Previous Message
The current thread re Mäkelä's and Rouvali's Sibelius has got me thinking about CD covers. I know I'm taking a chance here, possibly outing myself as the only philistine in a den of intellectuals and aesthetes, but here goes anyway... I will readily admit that I do judge a CD by its cover, and I'd love to know if anyone else does, or is brave enough to admit it! Re the Mäkelä and Rouvali Sibelius, I would not, in a million years, buy either of those two recordings, and I'd be pretty miffed if I was even gifted them. Now this is not just because of the pouting and posturing poses on the CD covers, which irritate me immensely - hence this post. I have lots of (in my opinion) great Sibelius symphony recordings already (Barbirolli, Berglund, Karajan, Jarvi, Tuxen, the white Warner historical box), so no matter how good the new kids on the block are, are they really offering me significantly more than the ones I've already got? We all know this critiquing of classical recordings is great fun, but we also all know that it's subjective. The perfect recording of anything is a chimera, though Schneiderhan in Beethoven's Violin Concerto comes close. Likewise, space, time and money are at a premium - I can't infinitely keep adding new recordings, even if I could afford to, because you reach the point where the old stuff never gets a look in, and how do you know you're not missing things in your old favourites, because you are too busy looking for the next big thing? And it's partly the space being at a premium, perhaps, as to why I try to avoid recordings with covers like the above two mentioned. Put simply, I like to be surrounded by nice things - William Morris's 'beautiful and useful' dictum, if you like. The above two (I'm picking on those but there are many others - Simon Rattle, step forward) are neither useful, in my opinion - certainly no more so than the ones I've already got - and are most definitely not beautiful, though I admit friends and families of the gentlemen may disagree. I know this all sounds superficial, but having given this a little thought, I find recordings with covers like this not just off-putting but actively intrusive - they get between me and the music, the composer. If I had the two Sibelius sets in question, and wanted to listen to a Sibelius symphony, my first thought wouldn't be which symphony shall I listen to, but which between Mäkelä and Rouvali, shall it be, and when their faces are staring out at you - EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU TAKE THEM OFF THE SHELF - they loom larger, it seems to me, than they need to. I'm sure they are both excellent musicians, but in the end I don't care to have it thrust permanently at me. I don't care what they are doing with the music - I care about what the music is doing to me. Of course, I'm a hypocrite, and I have a plenty of recordings in my collection that contradict my argument. I would happily replace George Szell's laser-like sternness on the cover of the Beethoven symphonies - and on the cover of the five sleeves inside! - for some pastoral or romantic scene, but it's not enough for me to not want that set in my collection. Rudolf Kempe is doing his thing on the cover of the box of Strauss orchestral works, but that's not going anywhere, and so on. And it works the other way. I did have the Maazel Sibelius symphony cycle, with the splendid portrait of the young composer, but not liking what I heard of my two favourite symphonies (3 & 6, thanks for asking), to the charity shop it went. Anyway, already too long a post. I'm ready for the barrage of brickbats - what can I say? I decided to play Neeme Jarvi's BIS 'Kullervo' while writing this, with its photograph on the cover of a cool Nordic lake. There's a photograph of the avuncular conductor on the back of the booklet, should I wish to look at it. Mostly, if I look at anything, I look at that photo of the lake.
Re: CD covers
Posted by tuxedo on April 4, 2024, 3:28 pm, in reply to "CD covers"
Barry
Can't imagine anyone disagreeing with much of what you write.
What I find strange is that in this financial climate, the sale of classical music CDs must have reduced considerably from some decades ago so how do companies survive when they willingly sabotage future sales by having such an irresponsible and juvenile approach to cover designs? Indeed, there are some companies which appear to go out of their way to be as far removed as possible from having what one might call a 'tasteful approach' as in the style employed by more highly-regarded organisations such as Hyperion and one or two others.
Many of these hideous covers are not only 'intrusive' but offensive. Not aimed at the performers, nor the producers or the owners of the company concerned - they are aimed at the potential purchaser. And if that's their idea of how to generate interest, they don't deserve to be in business.
However, I will say I enjoyed a good chuckle at the unintended humour offered in Mr Moore's response: "I pretty much ignore covers when reviewing... " would like to believe this but the preceding sentence had me thinking otherwise.
regards
Re: CD covers
Posted by Ralph Moore on April 4, 2024, 4:38 pm, in reply to "Re: CD covers"
Ha! Point taken, Tuxedo, but perhaps I should clarify: what I mean is that I try not to let the presentation influence my application of musical criteria - although I suspect that you are well aware of that and are just enjoying teasing me...
Previous Message
Barry
Can't imagine anyone disagreeing with much of what you write.
What I find strange is that in this financial climate, the sale of classical music CDs must have reduced considerably from some decades ago so how do companies survive when they willingly sabotage future sales by having such an irresponsible and juvenile approach to cover designs? Indeed, there are some companies which appear to go out of their way to be as far removed as possible from having what one might call a 'tasteful approach' as in the style employed by more highly-regarded organisations such as Hyperion and one or two others.
Many of these hideous covers are not only 'intrusive' but offensive. Not aimed at the performers, nor the producers or the owners of the company concerned - they are aimed at the potential purchaser. And if that's their idea of how to generate interest, they don't deserve to be in business.
However, I will say I enjoyed a good chuckle at the unintended humour offered in Mr Moore's response: "I pretty much ignore covers when reviewing... " would like to believe this but the preceding sentence had me thinking otherwise.
regards
Re: CD covers
Posted by Ralph Moore on April 5, 2024, 8:36 am, in reply to "Re: CD covers"
"What I find strange is that in this financial climate, the sale of classical music CDs must have reduced considerably from some decades ago." Tuxedo, I meant to mention that surprisingly the surviving - and indeed prospering - outlets such as Presto are still getting considerably more turnover from CDs than downloads or subscriptions which is why companies are still producing recordings in a supposedly outdated technological form. They not only place sizeable stock orders for major recordings in classical music and jazz but also manufacture their own licensed CDs. The format is far from dead yet.
Previous Message
Barry
Can't imagine anyone disagreeing with much of what you write.
What I find strange is that in this financial climate, the sale of classical music CDs must have reduced considerably from some decades ago so how do companies survive when they willingly sabotage future sales by having such an irresponsible and juvenile approach to cover designs? Indeed, there are some companies which appear to go out of their way to be as far removed as possible from having what one might call a 'tasteful approach' as in the style employed by more highly-regarded organisations such as Hyperion and one or two others.
Many of these hideous covers are not only 'intrusive' but offensive. Not aimed at the performers, nor the producers or the owners of the company concerned - they are aimed at the potential purchaser. And if that's their idea of how to generate interest, they don't deserve to be in business.
However, I will say I enjoyed a good chuckle at the unintended humour offered in Mr Moore's response: "I pretty much ignore covers when reviewing... " would like to believe this but the preceding sentence had me thinking otherwise.
regards
Re: CD covers
Posted by tuxedo on April 5, 2024, 2:14 pm, in reply to "Re: CD covers"
"I meant to mention that surprisingly the surviving - and indeed prospering - outlets such as Presto are still getting considerably more turnover from CDs than downloads or subscriptions..."
I am much relieved to learn this. It is indeed a surprise, though a welcome one.
And in response to your earlier comment: suspicion confirmed.
regards
Re: CD covers
Posted by Stephen Greenbank on April 5, 2024, 7:08 am, in reply to "CD covers"
Tuxedo's comment re. labels "irresponsible and juvenile approach to cover designs" brought to mind the recent cover design of pianist Tiffany Poon's debut album 'Diaries Schumann' https://musicwebinternational.com/2024/03/schumann-kinderszenen-davidsbundlertanze-pentatone/ I can't understand the thinking behind that. Such pianists as Alfred Brendel and Maurizio Pollini would never have sanctioned such a thing.
Re: CD covers
Posted by tuxedo on April 5, 2024, 2:28 pm, in reply to "Re: CD covers"
Stephen
Agreed.
The significant difference between Brendel, Pollini and co. is that they possessed something the debut 'pianist' will never have - self-respect.
Now - pay attention - I am about to add a "Wet Paint" sign to this post. Whatever you do, do NOT, type Poon into your search engine.