Ruth Laredo – Tchaikovsky: The Seasons album art

Carin Goldberg was fond of Eagle Bold (1934) and its precursor, Novel Gothic (1928). For the album cover of pianist Ruth Laredo’s interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons, Op. 37a, she paired the latter with another, stylistically related interbellum display sans: Messe-Grotesk was issued by the German AG für Schriftgießerei und Maschinenbau in 1921. The all-caps face is a good deal heavier than Novel Gothic and exhibits more Art Deco traits, like the diamond-shaped crossbars in A E H. It’s used with very loose letterspacing, compare to Goldberg’s use of Eagle for Kurt Vonnegut and of Novel Gothic for Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares.

The vignettes – leaves, stars, birds, and dancing couples in folk costumes – look like they might have been sourced from a period foundry catalog. In fact, they’re credited to illustrator Robert Van Nutt.