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In Reply to: Update on the Hatto scandal -- not looking good for Barrington-Coupe posted by clarkjohnsen on February 20, 2007 at 09:32:55:
I am not sensing much general alarm from consumers concerning this story, but I was very nearly a victim of this fraud.After the Gramophone rave in January, I put Ms. Hatto's recording of the 12 Etudes by Liszt first on my list of those to buy. The story (concerning the origin of these recordings) broke just a day or two before I was set to purchase. The story leaves me with a lot of questions.
How many (classical) recordings are fakes? How many recordings in my own collection are fakes? How can consumers protect themselves from this type of fraud? Which labels can be trusted?
As to the Hatto scandal, I remember that the critic (who wrote the original Gramophone article praising Hatto's recording of Liszt' "Etudes") wondered how a terminally ill women (who apparently was so ill that she could no longer perform in public during the time these recordings were produced) could have performed to such a high standard in so much repertoire over so short a time; a time when said artist was never seen in public and presumably undergoing aggressive therapy for cancer. These misgivings did not alarm the critic unduly though (or cause him to begin fact checking) and he went on to rave over Ms. Hatto's catalog. Needless to say, it should not have taken i-tunes to break this case.
Follow Ups:
If I were a classical music critic, I would be doing some soul searching after this story. Followers of this forum may recall the (all to) brief discussion about Fanfare's policy to guarantee reviews if the label purchased advertising for the recording.
Clark's comment regarding fakes is quite right, it is just not worth the effort except on a very small scale. There are classical artists who sell their recordings from web sites, (I remember one memorable Fanfare review incinerating one such offering) but most of those are probably vanity recordings.
However, it does make it important to use your own ears - the problem is to find reliable sources for new recordings. I have used Fanfare and to a certain extent Gramaphone, although the overall number of recordings I buy that make it to my rotation of things I listen to again and again are disappointingly small.
and I'm quite happy to have a number of truly wonderful performances by anon. If I find out who the pianists actually are, I may well get more recordings by them. If they are still available, I would recommend her Chopin etudes and Prokofiev sonatas.
I'm betting that this one was "the exception that proves the rule".
Of TAS-listed Canteloube fame? And his "orchestra conducted by?"
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