Joyce Hatto

Joyce Hatto (September 5 1928 – June 30, 2006) was a British pianist, whose performing career spanned nearly thirty years until the mid-1970s. Late in her life, recordings released under her name won critical acclaim, but after her death it was discovered that many of these recordings were the works of other pianists.

Career

She was said to have studied with Serge Krish and received guidance from Alfred Cortot, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Clara Haskil and others, and also to have studied composition with Paul Hindemith, Nadia Boulanger and Matyas Seiber. The retired critic James Methuen-Campbell heard two of her recitals in London's Wigmore Hall and recalls a pianist with an efficient and careful technique, concentrating on detail, but with an inability to convey the overall conception of a major work. Reportedly due to her battle with cancer, she ceased performing publicly in the 1970s, having attained little prominence.

However, beginning in 2003, over 100 recordings attributed to her appeared on the English label, Concert Artist, run by her husband W. H. Barrington-Coupe. These recordings include complete cycles of Beethoven, Mozart and Prokofiev sonatas, the concertos of Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Mendelssohn and most of the works of Chopin, besides rarer works such as the complete Godowsky Chopin Studies. Many of these recordings received rapturous reception, and on their basis, she was once described as "the greatest living pianist that almost no one has ever heard of."

Critical praise and Internet following

As early as 2003, Hatto's recordings received attention in the Usenet newsgroup, rec.music.classical.recordings (RMCR), whose active participants included many highly experienced collectors. Soon, a small but persistent chorus formed in praise of Hatto's recordings. Every new recording issued was immediately promoted by members such as Alan M. Watkins, a timpanist with a long career in Eastern Europe, and Tom Deacon, an established record producer whose productions included the Great Pianists series for Philips. Other participants in the forum expressed skepticism, particularly about the identity of René Köhler, whose name was given as conductor of Hatto's orchestral recordings. These discrepancies were never properly clarified. Eventually, publications such as Gramophone, MusicWeb and Classics Today, as well as newspapers such as the Boston Globe, discovered Hatto and reviewed her recordings and her career. The critical consensus seemed to be that this woman in her seventies, who had suffered from cancer for many years, was an outstanding pianist whose performances of a wide variety of pianistic repertoire surpassed those of many famous pianists.

In January 2007, a participant of RMCR told the story of how on three different discs, Hatto sounded like the work of different pianists. This was mostly met with ridicule, though a few participants expressed similar doubts.

Recordings unmasked

In February 2007, after a large number of Hatto disks had been issued, it emerged that the CDs ascribed to her contained copies, in some cases digitally manipulated (stretched or shrunk in time, re-equalised and rebalanced), of published commercial recordings made by other artists, some well-known, others less so. The first evidence of the misattribution was an analysis by the specialist audio restoration business Pristine Audio., which had been asked to investigate by the magazine, The Gramophone. Independent evidence was subsequently provided by The AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (CHARM), Royal Holloway, University of London. Futher evidence was noted by Music Web International.

Further misattributions regarding these suspect recordings include the conductors and orchestras. For these recordings, the conductor is given as René Köhler, but for a few of these, the actual conductors were André Previn and Bernard Haitink. While the orchestras, claimed to be the National Philharmonic-Symphony and the Warsaw Philharmonia, were actually, for some recordings, the Vienna Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic.

Barrington-Coupe has denied any wrongdoing and has said he will ask his own sound engineer to compare the recordings. Furthermore, he has vowed to continue selling them, but to include a notice of their disputed authenticity.

Meanwhile the British Phonographic Industry has begun an investigation. If the allegations are true, it would be one of the most extraordinary cases of piracy the record industry had ever seen, according to a BPI spokesman |- | CACD20022 -- Godowsky Studies on Chopin Etudes | Some studies are identical to those played by the pianist Carlo Grante on a CD issued by Altarus. Study No.3 is a copy of Marc-André Hamelin's recording on Hyperion. Study No. 18a is most likely from Carlo Grante CDDBid 3d11d218 (there are two sets of performances by Grante). Study No. 27 may or may not be by Hobson. Study No. 48 may or may not be by Hobson. |- |CACD20032 -- Messiaen Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus. |A copy of a performance by Paul Kim, recorded for Centaur at the Patrych Sound Studios, New York City, in January 2002, time stretched by 2.4%. |- |CACD20042 -- Ravel Complete Piano Music. |Found to be a copy of a CD release by Roger Muraro on the Accord label (Universal Classics France), recorded in May, 2003. |- |CACD80002 -- Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1, Two Rhapsodies, Op.79 & Rhapsody Op.119 No. 4. |PC 1 copied from a performance by Horacio Gutiérrez with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andre Previn on the Telarc label. |- |CACD80012 -- Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2, Klavierstücke Op.118. |PC 2 copied from a performance by Vladimir Ashkenazy with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Bernard Haitink on Decca. |- |CACD90682 -- Bach Goldberg Variations. |At least in part a copy of a performance by Chen Pi-Hsien available on Naxos. |- |CACD90842 -- Liszt Transcendental Studies. |Found to be a copy of performances by László Simon (released by BIS Records) and by Minoru Nojima. Ten of the twelve studies were Simon's performances; the other two were copied from Nojima. |- |CACD90852 -- Saint-Säens Piano Concerto No. 2 |appears to be the performance of Jean-Philippe Collard, accompanied by conductor Andre Previn, on EMI. |- |CACD91112 -- Liszt Operatic Transcriptions: The Italian Opera, vol 2. |Derived from two CDs (Hungaroton HCD 31547 and HCD 31299) performed by Endre Hegedűs. |- |CACD91202 -- Albeniz Iberia. |At least in part a copy of a performance by Jean-Francois Heisser on Erato. |- |CACD91272 -- Rachmaninov Preludes |Some are copied from John Browning's performances on Delos: Op. 23 No. 4 in D Major, Op. 32 No. 5 in G Major, op. 32 No. 12 in G sharp minor, and op. 32 No. 13 in D flat Major are confirmed matches. |- |CACD 91342 -- Beethoven Symphonies transcribed by Liszt vol. 1. |Tracks 1-5: Symphony No. 6 'Pastoral' from Konstantin Scherbakov's recording on Naxos 8.557170 (Liszt Complete Piano Music Vol.19), with slight time stretching. |- |CACD91682 -- An Anthology of Recital Encores, Vol. 1. |Suspected to be from a set of CDs released in the early 1990's on the Naxos label. |- |CACD91692 -- An Anthology of Recital Encores. |Track 8: Rubinstein Scherzo taken from the label Marco Polo 8-223176 which is performed by Josef Banowetz. Note: it appears that this work has only been recorded once in the CD era. |- |CACD91792 -- Rachmaninov The Transcriptions. |Tracks 1-14 are taken from Harmonia Mundi (Saison Russe) RUS 288 122 performed by Alexander Guindin. (see also CACD92172 entry) |- |CACD92172 -- Rachmaninov Piano Concertos. |Found to be a copy of performances by Yefim Bronfman, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen released by Sony. Coupled with Six moments musicaux Op.16, from Alexander Guindin's performance on Harmonia Mundi (Saison Russe) RUS 288 122. |- |CACD92432 -- Chopin Etudes. |At least some of these are copies of performances by Yuki Matsuzawa on the Novalis label. |- |CACD92742 -- Dukas complete piano music. |Taken from SIMAX PSC1177 performed by Tor Espen Aspaas. One track on the CD, "Pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas" by Falla, is taken from Miguel Baselga's recording on BIS CD 773 (reduced slightly in speed). |- |CACD91312 -- Debussy, the complete piano works, Vol. 2. |Arabesque I is by Pascal Rogé (Decca). Hommage a Haydn is by François-Joël Thiollier (Naxos). At least several etudes, perhaps all, are by François-Joël Thiollier (Naxos), with serious speed distortion in some of them. |}

Early discography

The recent release of Arnold Bax's Symphonic Variations in E Major (CACD90212), issued by the Concert Artists label, may be a reissue of Hatto's 1970 recording with the Guildford Philharmonic conducted by Vernon Handley, originally issued on Barrington-Coupe's Revolution label.

Hatto's authentic recordings were never widespread, and as far as can be ascertained at this point, the above mentioned work of Bax was the last to appear on LP in 1970. In the eighties there were some more works released on tape cassettes (Grieg Piano Concerto, Liszt 2 Piano Concertos, Rigoletto Paraphrase, Miserere del Trovatore, Totentanz for piano solo, Seven Hungarian Historical Portraits). The solo piano repertoire of these releases shows works Hatto played also at that period in London on various occasions at Royal Festival Hall and other venues.

Her early releases include:

• Concert Artist 7-inch EPs:
  • Walter Gaze Cooper Piano Concerto #3
  • Elspeth Rhys-Williams, 4 Impressions, 2 Songs
  • Michael Williams Introduction & Allegro for piano & orchestra
• Saga:
  • "Music for the Films" (Addinsell, Bath, Chas. Williams) w/London Variety Theatre Orchestra/Gilbert Vinter
  • Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue w/Hamburg Pro Music/George Byrd
  • Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2 w/Hamburg Pro Music/George Hurst
  • Chopin Sonatas #1 & 3
  • Chopin Minor Piano works (Albumblatt, Fugue etc.)
• Delta:
  • Mozart Piano Concertos K. 466 & 488 w/Pasdeloup Orchestra/Disenhaus
  • Mozart Piano Concerto K. 453, Rondo K. 382 w/London Classic Players/David Littaur
• Fidelio:
  • Lecuona assorted piano pieces
  • Gershwin 16 items from the "Song Book"
• Revolution:
  • Bax Piano Sonata #1, Piano Sonata #4, Toccata, Water Music
  • Bax Symphonic Variations in E w/Guildford Philharmonic/Vernon Handley

External links

• "Joyce Hatto – some thoughts, some questions and a lot of letters," by Christopher Howell, published February 21, 2007
• The Telegraph: " My wife's virtuoso recordings are genuine," published February 20, 2007
• "Will the Real Joyce Hatto Please Stand Up" by David Hurwitz, published February 18, 2007
• Gramophone: "Masterpieces or Fakes? The Joyce Hatto Scandal," published February 15, 2007
• "Joyce Hatto - The Ultimate Recording Hoax" on PristineClassical.com, released February 15, 2007
• CHARM: "Purely coincidental? Joyce Hatto and Chopin's Mazurkas," released February 16, 2007
• International Herald Tribune: "Questions arise over recordings by pianist Joyce Hatto," published February 16, 2007
• Times Online: "Piano ‘genius’ is branded a fake," published February 17, 2007
• The Telegraph: "Pianist's virtuosity is called into question," published February 17, 2007
• New York Times: "A Pianist’s Recordings Draw Praise, but Were They All Hers?," published February 17, 2007
• Boston Globe "Joyce Hatto, at 77; pianist was prolific recording artist" published July 4 2006, retrieved July 10, 2006
• Joyce Hatto by Ates Orga Part 1
• Joyce Hatto by Ates Orga Part 2
• Joyce Hatto - A Pianist of Extraordinary Personality and Promise
• Joyce Hatto, English pianist, dies aged 77
• iTunes fingers musical fraud
• "New Zealand radio feature with an interview with Joyce Hatto 2006
• "Murray Khouri : Hatto Recordings Counterfeit? on New Zealand Radio, Monday 19 Feb 2007"