Outrageous musical hoax - uncovered with Adobe Audition

I see at least one person has joined that thread refusing to believe that she was a hoax.  His argument is that, in terms of musical interpretation he can HEAR that Hatto is different and superior to the people she is supposed to have copied.

At the risk of being cruel, I wish I had his address.  I have some expensive audio leads I'd like to sell him too!

Bob

It appears he has now seen the light...

Methinks it may rather be that he has felt the heat...

The archives of Wigmore Hall would quickly reveal whether or not she did play there at the period stated.

The existence of the conductor of the orchestra used on some of her recordings has, however, very much come up for debate - try googling for René Köhler and you only come up with the Joyce Hatto association (or a Rolls Royce one!).

I'll say this though - assuming that she did live and die and perform at the dates stated - in another forum Andrew has commented to the effect that he finds it difficult to believe that she was not a party to the hoax.  Well, I can actually imagine circumstances where she could well not have known.  Assuming that she did record the works, it's possible that they were authentically edited and approved by her, and that the substitution took place at the duplication stage - and I've seen it suggested that the duplication was in-house to order.  Any copies of the recording around the house could well have been the authentic ones.  And if she went round to friends, you don't normally say to a visiting musician "Hi Joyce, let's settle down and listen to one of your recordings".  Musicians I have worked with seem to have little interest in their own recordings once complete - they usually regret them, even when brilliantly performed!  So - let's give this deceased soul the benefit of the doubt and see what's proven about who is actually responsible for this.  The husband has issued denials in emails in the last 24 hours apparently (in response to angry customers who paid large sums for individual CDs!).

So - let's give this deceased soul the benefit of the doubt and see what's proven about who is actually responsible for this.  The husband has issued denials in emails in the last 24 hours apparently (in response to angry customers who paid large sums for individual CDs!).

I very much got the impression that this may well have had nothing to do with her directly - and we'll never know anyway unless she has recorded her thoughts about this anywhere, and this seems pretty unlikely. I'm pretty sure that all the accusations are pointing in one direction - and it's not  towards her...

As a postscript, I've just read through an interesting interview with Hatto about her touring life around Europe. It's gloriously out of context of course, but at one point the interviewer asks:

"And nothing ever went wrong in these eastern tours?" and back comes the answer -

"No the only time things ever went wrong was when I was travelling with my husband!"

So no change there, then... 

Andrew - great investigation of an ubelieveable hoax - I never heard of her, but it seems from the links which were provided here, that "her" recordings gained a lot of popularity among some listeners.

It is really strange than nobody investigated this seriously before. I mean, all these doubts of how the elderly ill lady could have recorded so much, these wrong track names - or rather right track names with wrong performer names - popping up in the Windows Media Players or foobars of numerous people, finally, a conductor no one has ever heard of, an "ad-hoc" orchestra which recorded only with Hatto and Köhler for 7 or 8 years, and never with anyone else. I am also pretty sure that never there was  anything called Warsaw Philharmonia Orchestra.  And I doubt that an "ad-hoc" Polish orchestra would be hired to travel to the UK and record there in 1994 - 10 years before Poland joined the EU and Poles could work in the UK without getting special permits, etc. The logistics required for such operation would be a great burden for a small record company.

There are also some inconsitencies in René Köhler's biography posted here but supposedly provided by William Barrington-Coupe.

It seems unlikely that "he briefly continued studying music at the Jagiellonian University of Krakow" - since 1888 Krakow has had a Conservatoire (since 1979 called Academy of Music), separate from the Jagiellonian University. The Jagiellonian University had at this time only a small sub-department of History and Theory of Music - that is, he could maybe study musicology at the University, rather than music. A musician would study at the Conservatoire.
Next, it is highly unlikely that he "unable to join the [Warsaw] Conservatoire because of his Jewish faith" - I have no knowledge of such restrictions, and I was able to find at least two musicians of Jewish origin who studied in Warsaw Conservatoire in the 1930s.

Oh, Andrew, there is a small mistake on your page on the Hatto Hoax. It says:
Left channel = 'Joyce Hatto' - Right channel = Carlo Grante
Altarus CD, 1995
Simon [instead of Grante] recording has been time-shrunk by 15.112%

Thanks for spotting the page error - as you might guess, it's been cobbled together as evidence came to light and chopped and changed accordingly.

As for Hatto not knowing about this - it's hard to explain how they managed to record her with a complete symphony orchestra in their home studio, or in a non-existent church in London. She must have noticed all those musicians crammed into her living room! But she did apparently talk about these sessions as if they'd happened - assuming the 'real' Joyce Hatto was the person on the other end of the phone interviews and e-mails....

Indeed, Andrew, that does take some explaining...  what a fascinating business.  Meryl Streep is apparently going to take the lead role in the movie, so I read somewhere on the net.

Can I play myself and have a romantic liaison? I know it's stretching the story a bit, but hey...

INT. DAY:  PRISTINE AUDIO CONTROL ROOM

Andrew is sitting at the controls of his Audition PC, staring intently at the screen, hitting keys on the keyboard.  Behind him stands his beautiful assistant, Fifi. 

                   ANDREW

Stretching....stretching....a bit more...almost got it...almost got it....YES!  They're identical!  This is the proof we needed!


                   FIFI

You mean....?


                  ANDREW

Yes.  All our work is vindicated.  We've proven that Joyce Hatto is a fake!  SteveG and Ozpeter will HAVE to respect me now!


                   FIFI

That's wonderful.  Andrew, you're going to be......famous....

Her words tail off as their eyes meet.  A look passes between them and FIFI takes off her black, horn-rim glasses and shakes her hair out of the tight bun she normally wears.  She begins to slowly unbutton her lab coat.  Andrew looks scared at first, then reaches for his keyboard and punches a key.  The screen display changes and the camera zooms into a close shot of the Audition phase analysis display (the rude one) pulsing wildly.


                 CUT TO:

INT DAY

BFM is trying to make M-Audio drivers work with Windows Vista.....



Bob

(running for the door)

Joking aside, I just listened to the 6PM news on BBC Radio 4 and, just after a quarter past the hour, they did an extensive feature on the Joyce Hatto story, including an interview with Andrew Rose!

Congratulations!

Bob

Andrew, you're famous!

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/16/news/hatto.php
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/17/npianist17.xml
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article1398283.ece
http://www.classicstoday.com/Classics/ConcertReview_ASPFiles/ViewConcertReview.asp?Action=User&ID=533
http://www.stereophile.com/news/021907hatto/
http://hiperhip.blogspot.com/2007/02/strange-story.html

Get ready to meet Meryl Streep

And...until 6PM tomorrow at least...you can listen to Andrew on the BBC News.

Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/ and in the right hand column select "listen to the latest 6PM bulletin".  If you use the controls on the player screen, fast forwarding by 15 minutes takes you almost exactly to the start of the story.

Bob

And...until 6PM tomorrow at least...you can listen to Andrew on the BBC News.

It's not going to last too long, so I've taken the liberty (under the 'extracts' rule, and I don't think they'd mind) of extracting just the relevant bit, which some people might find easier to play anyway.

[Con]

I've been away from the forum for a few days, and I'm not particularly familiar with the classical music world anyway.  But has anyone else mentioned yet how the name of the record label may hold a hint: Concert Artist?

Thanks, SteveG, but the supposed interview with Andrew is clearly a hoax.  In real life he's got a strong Welsh accent.

 

Thanks, SteveG, but the supposed interview with Andrew is clearly a hoax.  In real life he's got a strong Welsh accent.

 

Do you think that I could correct that with HarBal?