The classical world’s first “Milli Vanilli” scandal
It appears that the formerly obscure British cult pianist Joyce Hatto was not all that her husband’s recording company said she was.
Hatto was a middling concert pianist in the 50s and withdrew from public performance claiming pain from ovarian cancer prevented her from performing professionally. She disappeared from public view until 1989 when a series of over 100 CDs began appearing to rave reviews. In these CDs she covered the repertoire from A to Z including the most difficult piano music ever written, major critics and reviewers claimed a miracle! She apparently made recordings in her husband’s recording studio.
Early this week her husband admitted that he faked the recordings, copying famous and obscure recordings and using software to fiddle balance, equilization and the length of pieces.
It all came to light when a critic popped a CD by Joyce Hatto into his PC and Gracenotes database quickly reported that the disc was by Laszlo Simon, a relative nobody in international piano circles.
Egg on lots of faces, especially critics who had orgasms over her playing when her CDs are a copied salad of different artists!