Artist biographies and the future
I have had a couple of queries regarding the lack of notes on the artists. The problem is that there is almost no existing information on these artists. After my research on Johanna Martzy yielded such an abundance of material, I have found it incredible that these great artists should leave so little evidence of their lives. We know that their records are rare and can command breathtaking prices, but what of the people behind these impossible artefacts? After the Second War, the French critical establishment tended to consider French artists to be lesser than those of say, Germany or Russia. For a country well known for its national and cultural chauvinism this is somewhat shocking. It would seem that unless they had the established profile of Thibaud or Cortot, they received little or no attention or promotion. Those lucky few who were acknowledged were generally appreciated more as teachers than performers.
Series Two includes a substantial biographical piece on Maurice Maréchal and will feature several photographs. There are similar pieces on Agnelle Bundervoët and Marcelle Meyer. Camilla Wicks is kindly helping me prepare a revealing biographical piece, which will be presented as a four page insert to accompany ORIV. As for Jacqueline Eymar, further recordings will be appearing in a future series so I can only hope we discover more than the one news-clipping found to date.
It was planned that photographs of Jeanne Gautier would feature, along with her tantalisingly minimal biographical information, with the discs featuring Lelia Gousseau in Series Two. However given the promise of new information coming to light we have postponed any printed material for the time being.
AO is an ongoing work in progress. Information, like the recordings themselves, will be made available as it is revealed. It is very much like archaeology. I hope that you will enjoy this process of discovery as much as I.
Jacket Design
Anyone who has any interest in the jacket art design should know that it was achieved without recourse to any digital technology. All the drawing was done by hand, the film was produced photographically, each colour screen printed by hand and the jackets constructed by hand.
For more information about the making of the jackets click here.
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