'[Louise Hanson-Dyer was] born into a wealthy family - her father was a parliamentarian and ... doctor - ... [Hanson-Dyer] developed her interest in music early, and used her wealth ... to advance the arts in Melbourne. She assisted the poet
John Shaw Neilson (q.v.) and underwrote musical ventures, but increasingly felt the tug of Europe. In 1932, in Paris, she established Editions de l'Oiseau-Lyre (Lyrebird Press), and as a music publisher set about reviving baroque and medieval music, in rare editions notable both for their scholarship and sumptuousness. Later... she began to make discs to illustrate these editions. ... [I]n 1950 ... [Hanson-Dyer] made the first long-playing records in Europe, ... [her] Oiseau-Lyre ... label putting out some of the earliest recordings by such people as Dame Joan Sutherland ...' (Libraries Australia summary)
