Richard Strauss LP cover (1954)

January 15, 2011   //   1950s, architecture, Columbia Records, record covers

Illustration from the cover of Eugene Ormandy & the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 1954 Columbia Masterworks 10″ LP, Richard Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels [sic] Lustige Streiche and Waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier (AL-46).

Flora illustrated about a dozen covers for Columbia during his 1943-1950 employment at the label (all released after he relinquished the Art Director chair in 1945). Following a 15-month Mexican hiatus, he rekindled his U.S. freelance career in 1951 and provided a number of work-for-hire illustrations for Columbia records and print material thru the mid-1950s.

The original artwork no longer exists except on the somewhat rare (and hence very collectible) cardboard sleeve. The bland, generic typesetting is poorly juxtaposed atop Flora’s iconic fine-art imagery. We can only speculate that Flora — who also specialized in mischievous typography — provided the artwork but did not design the package.

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