# Loving Miss Hatto



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Just watched the British BBC film of the story of the pianist Joyce Hatto written by the comedienne Victoria Wood. Hatto's husband, known as Barry, foisted a huge fraud on the music industry by digitally acting recordings and passing them off as his wife's. When the fraud was exposed there were some huge red faces among the critics, some of whom had praised Hatto's recordings to the skies, not twigging that a woman seriously ill with cancer could not possibly have recorded 100 discs of highly demanding piano music in her old age. One critic even praised the Hatto Rach 3 while 3 years before he had written a sniffy review of the original recording. Illustrates the fallibility of the almighty critics while demonstrating how subjective their reviews can be.
The film itself was brilliant both in acting direction and script. Do see it if you get the chance. Loving Miss Hatto - I loved it!


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Barry the Husband also defrauded a few thousand CD buyers, which was apparently OK - fraud being more of a pastime than a crime in GB?


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Hilltroll72 said:


> Barry the Husband also defrauded a few thousand CD buyers, which was apparently OK - fraud being more of a pastime than a crime in GB?


he also defrauded some major labels and artists out of Royalties. The reason the CEO of BISS gave for not taking action was that Barry by the hoax had actually got publicity for the BISS artist who had been ignored by the critics. I think it brought to light some major, if relatively unknown artists. But it also brought to light how sim the critics are when spotting a work of fraud.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

If it sounds great, why should the CD buyer care that much? If it sounds like a good live performance, why does it matter that it was crafted digitally?


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

BurningDesire said:


> If it sounds great, why should the CD buyer care that much? If it sounds like a good live performance, why does it matter that it was crafted digitally?


That indeed was part of Barry's justification for doing what he did. The other was to get his wife's playing recognised and also put one over on the critics who he felt had never appreciated her. I think the question is whether it is honest to do it, to get Marc Andre Hamelin's Chopin-Godowsky studies and digitally fix them so even Hamelin couldn't play like that! For me the thrill of hearing a great pianist comes from the. The fact it is a real interpretation and not one digitally fixed, apart perhaps from correcting the odd wrong note by splicing. Glenn Gould's recordings are full of patches from his own admission, but it was him playing. And, of course, they came before the days of digital fixing were actually possible.


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