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Posted by John Quinn But Dominy raise a very important point, namely should reviewers - on Music Web or those writing for other publications - "examine their consciences" if they've been taken in by an allegedly fraudulent recording? I think the answer to this question has to be a very firm "no". If one receives a recording for evaluation one has to take its provenance at face value. It's just the same if, at work, I receive information from a client or a prospective client. You have to work on the assumption that the overwhelming majority of people are trustworthy and proceed accordingly or else you'd never get anywhere. Reviewers have enough to do, I think, evaluating the product in front of them without agonising over whether the product itself is what it claims to be. There will be occasions, perhaps concerning purportedly live recordings from radio archives, when caution may be justified and should be expressed in a review. However, for me the key test is reasonableness. If, taking everything into account - the provenance of the recording, the reviewer's experience and knowledge etc - it was reasonable to believe that a disc is what it says it is, then I believe the reviewer's conscience is clear. Occasionally people will be duped - it's happened in the art world and in the literary sphere too. Even the greatest experts can be fooled sometimes. Happily, it doesn't happen too often but when it does it creates an understandable slur. So, while not minimising for one moment the scale of what is alleged regarding the Hatto recordings I think it's important to maintain a sense of proportion and to realise that critics are critics - not detectives. My advice, if I may be so presumptious, is that Dominy and fellow critics should just carry on using best endeavours - no less, but no more than that.
on February 20, 2007, 12:43 pm, in reply to "Re: Hatto? Ha!"
193.34.231.236
Unlike some of my fellow Music Web reviewers I haven't been exposed to Joyce Hatto recordings, simply because my reviewing interests don't usually extend to solo piano discs.
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