I don't believe we were able to definitively source the Comedians artwork used for the cover. (Howard Terpning definitely did the "masks" poster; but I don't think he did the artwork we wound up using.) The best guess I could come up with is Mitchell Hooks, who did movie posters (Dr. No, The Sand Pebbles) and book and magazine covers (including for Graham Greene) ... but again, that's just a guess.
The FSM artwork for "Hotel Paradiso" is a takeoff on the original MGM LP artwork:
But for "The Comedians" the FSM artwork differs greatly from (and is much superior to) the original LP artwork:
Indeed, when MCA reissued the MGM LP in 1986, they apparently deemed the original artwork so poor that rather than reuse it (which they did with almost all of their MGM reissues), they went with a poster reproduction instead:
I really would be curious to know why MGM arrived at that abortion of an album cover for the LP--especially since they had access to those two terrific illustrative approaches. (I think the first poster art looks more like the work of Sandy Kossin, who did the art for THE DEVIL'S BRIGADE.)
This is definitely one I'm going to pick up in the near future. Thanks, Lukas and crew.
Placed my order for this today after listening to the LP program of The Comedians one more time. So amazing. Rosenthal has become one of my favorite film composers over the last couple of years.
Having received this two days ago, I'd like to praise THE COMEDIANS. The clarity and transparency of the sound is outstanding, and the absence (or near absence) of brass in this score allows you to enjoy the crisp sound even more (no need to be on constant alert to turn the volume up and down all the time). This is a very smooth, at time almost delicate kind of percussive (?) score, especially in its first half. Rosenthal created quite a unique sound here, and it evokes an atmosphere that makes me want to hunt down the movie again after such a long time.
Now HOTEL PARADISO is not that much my cup of tea. The sound feels almost mono, although that is obviously not due to actual mono or bad elements, but probably a consequence of the composer's choice to feature just a small ensemble of musicians.
Late to the party, I recently bought this thanks to the Indiegogo campaign, but what a stellar release this is. Since everyone already praised The Comedians, I just wanted to add I like Hotel Paradiso even better. Wonderful little score, too bad the complete score elements aren't there anymore.
