The Great Piano Scam, program on channel four Options

[Jacobi]

Did anyone else watch the program on channel four? I thought it was perhaps made up but it is true after all...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Hatto

[AmandaL]

Yes, watched it. Was totally unaware of it but then I'm neither a pianist nor a fan of piano music. Amazing how he still manages to keep up the pretence of the entire thing.

The fact that her husband had been known for tongue in cheek (made up) names for conductors and singers was quite amusing though - Ava Gess (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) That's what classical music needs more of, dry humour, rather than just being portrayed as dry. It's such a shame we're thought of as straight-laced fuddy duddy old f**ts, because the goings on in a professional orchestra would make Jilly Cooper's raunchy novels look tame by comparison..........

[mel2]

It was on the tv but I was busy so only gave it half my attention.

I can't understand why, if those in the know are so sure that wrong doing happened, the husband didn't face prosecution or at least a fine?
If he has cobbled together other people's recordings and attributed them to Joyce Hatto then you would think the artists would be keen on some kind of retribution. My understanding is that the recordings were so cleverly engineered that the performers did not recognise their own work.

I would like to believe this lady had made a comeback; it seems unlikely, more's the pity.
Perhaps he has done a stint in the jug or been otherwise punished but if so I didn't catch that bit.

[Jacobi]

He wasn't fined or imprisoned as he never really made that much money from it apparently. Although that isn't really the point though, mainly it was passing other people's work off as Joyce's!

[sarah123]

I think the questions they asked him were badly chosen to get useful answers and that he probably answered truthfully.

Question: Did you ever use whole recordings of works by other artists?
Answer: No.
Meaning: He mixed several artists' works together or something similar.

Question: Did you ever produce a recording that had none of Joyce's playing in it?
Answer: No.
Meaning: They all had at least a few notes of her playing in them.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

[skylark]

This was on television again last night on More 4, did anyone else see it? I only saw bits of it but I've just been reading about the scam on Wikipedia. It seems alarm bells were initially raised when somebody put Joyce Hatto's CD into iTunes and it was identified as someone else's. It does seem surprising that out of all the dozens of artists who were plagiarised, not one has sued for damages. Maybe it would be too expensive, with little reward at the end even if they won. Maybe because of Barrington Coupe's age - he's nearly 80 - they're letting him off. I'd never heard of Joyce Hatto before this programme.

[Mad Tom]

Did anyone else watch the program on channel four? I thought it was perhaps made up but it is true after all...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Hatto

So far as we can judge the truth or falsity of anything we read/see/are told ... it is true. It is a famous incident and well known amongst pianists.

[clavicembalo]

Did anyone else watch the program on channel four? I thought it was perhaps made up but it is true after all...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Hatto

So far as we can judge the truth or falsity of anything we read/see/are told ... it is true. It is a famous incident and well known amongst pianists.

Yes, Radio 3, in all seriousness, devoted a whole programme to the revelation of Hatto's recordings, before the cat was out of the bag!