An unusual combination: two violins and a viola. All of these instruments are rather high in the register, with no-one to play the bass. This is the original of a composition I already wrote about: the Miniatures. Dvořák wrote it for Josef Kruis, a violin player renting a room in the house where the Dvořák family lived in 1887.
At the back it is mentioned that the cover is a detail of a painting by Lesueux in the Louvre, called The Muses. I couldn’t find this painter or his painting. It does make me think of an article I read some time ago about the sexyness of album covers in classical music. These days the cover picture of the album needs to be the musician, preferably in sexy poses, or at least in poses that look very active and uhm… different. So let’s see: sexy: check; active poses: not really; different: if you count the way the lady on the right is looking up: check.