Now, this is a bizarre story. Numerous classical recordings by pianist Joyce Hatto, who died last year, may have been fakes. Certainly some of them were. The pianist's husband, William Barrington-Coupe, who produced much of Hatto's later work, has admitted to inserting other people's recordings onto master tapes for albums that were then released by record company Concert Artist Records under Hatto's name. It is also possible the conductor credited on some of the recordings doesn't exist.
This has all come to light via a report in classical magazine Gramophone, and follows a chance discovery by an American financial analyst called Brian Ventura who noticed that when he played a Hatto recording on his PC the Gracenote music identification software recognised the recordings as belonging to other musicians or orchestras. He then checked the recordings Gracenote identified, and found them to be incredibly similar to those credited to Hatto.
He contacted Gramophone magazine and classical critic Jed Distler about his discovery. The editor of Gramophone put him in touch with an audio restoration business called Pristine Audio who analysed the Hatto tracks and the Gracenote identified recordings discovering that many were identical. When Distler first contacted Barrington-Coupe about the discovery the widower denied any knowledge of how the recordings could be the same, but then subsequently admitted to the boss of one of the label's whose music he had sampled on the recordings that some of Hatto's later work was not, in fact, her own.
In the letter to Swedish record company BIS, Barrington-Coupe explains that he first cut in segments of other classical recordings into his late wife's work because she was suffering so much from cancer her moans of pain could sometimes be heard on her own recordings. As he got better at inserting samples so that they would be unnoticed, he started to include lengthier pieces of other people's works. Presumably, given that the fraud was discovered because Gracenote recognised the sampled music, eventually he was including entire segments of other classical recordings.
In his letter to BIS he stressed that he sampled the other recordings not for commercial gain, but so to ensure his wife, whose long performing and recording career he felt was too often overlooked, could continue to appear in the public domain, despite her illness. He concluded: "It is self-evident that I have acted stupidly, dishonestly and unlawfully". Commenting on the letter BIS boss Robert von Bahr told reporters: "It is very touching and he does go through every detail and how he did it and he makes it very credible".
It is not clear how many of Hatto's recordings contained samples of others work, though she was noted for her prolific recording output towards the end of her life so their could be many. Sampled music has been identified in at least twenty Hatto recordings released by Concert Artist Records, but Barrington-Coupe seems unwilling to discuss the specifics of his fraud expressing the wish to see all affected recordings destroyed and to put the whole thing behind him. But some in the classical industry are now demanding a full account of the sampling activity, while the BPI is reportedly investigating whether they or labels whose work was stolen should take legal action. Though von Bahr confirmed to reporters this week that he did not intend to take action for the violation of his company's copyrights, observing: "I don't see how either myself or the industry can get any satisfaction for pure revenge. I think the whole thing is a deeply tragic story."
Commenting on the whole strange affair, Gramophone editor James Inverne told the BBC yesterday: "We wouldn't have known even to look had it not been for the accident where iTunes came up with the 'correct' title for the discs. All the recordings are now in doubt unless proved otherwise. We're talking about over 100 works she recorded and the only person who really will know - if even he has kept records - is William Barrington-Coupe, and he declines to give lists". Adding that it would now be "impossible" to properly assess how talented Hatto had been unless Mr Barrington-Coupe revealed the full scale of his deception, he concluded: "She'll go down in notoriety rather than fond memory, as it were, and that's a great shame".
And he's right of course, and I suspect it's a story that will continue to grow. I can't help thinking a film studio boss somewhere isn't thinking what a good movie this bizarre story would make.