Wagner: Rienzi Overture & Die Walküre album art
Wagner: Rienzi Overture & Die Walküre. Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York. Released in 1950 as Columbia Records ML-2153.
From the great collection of Scott Lindberg, who comments:
I wonder if the airbrushed black lines in the foreground of this design was Steinweiss’s attempt to deconstruct this piece a bit? The design would be far less successful without this element.
The ominous shadows definitely add depth and intensify the gloomy mediaeval atmosphere. The sleeve design is by Alex Steinweiss, who didn’t pass up the opportunity to use a blackletter typeface. The modernist textura is Gotika by Hungarian-Swiss artist Imre Reiner who studied under F.H. Ernst Schneidler. First issued by the Bauer foundry in Germany in 1933, it was digitized by Patrick Griffin and released through Canada Type under the questionable name Leather in 2005.
Gotika is paired with condensed styles from News Gothic (or Trade Gothic?) and the bolder Franklin Gothic, in all lowercase. The mix is perfected by some words in the designer’s trademark handwriting, a.k.a. “Steinweiss Scrawl”
