[ Post a Response | The MusicWeb Message Board ]
CELEBRATING 20,000 Classical CD reviews on-line; 21,000 visitors each day.
Return to MusicWeb International
Posted by Alistair Hinton on February 21, 2007, 4:00 pm, in reply to "Hatto? Ha!" There is indeed no point carping at critics and playing the holier-than-thou know-it-all approach that some have adopted, although the general CD-buying public's distrust generated by this still burgeoning hoax will be far more widespread and take far longer to dissipate than will the finger-pointing at critics. The 6 scenario suggestions will be useful to people trying to form conclusions and come to terms with what has happened, why, how and at whose hand/s. Publication of the correspondence is also helpful to the same ends. However, the recordings hoax itself was so massive and elaborate that, for a long period of time, it went undetected not only professional critics but by the likes of Ates Orga, Jeremy Nicholas and Ivan Davis; it is therefore not too much of a leap of faith to assume that the correspondence(that's to say between Mr Howell and WB-C/"JH" and any similar correspondence such as he encourages others to publish) might similarly have been faked as an inextricable and necessary part of the entire exercise. I admit that faking it would have required considerable consistency and tenacity as well as substantial musical, psychological and other technical skills - but then so did the recording hoax. I also admit that in many ways it's perhaps an even more horrible thought, but then on the other hand the prospect that Joyce Hatto was just as much in on the act as anyone else involved is hardly a savoury alternative. I hope that Mr Howell does not really think that he has pitched in too soon; I certainly do not and I hope, as the case develops and more facts emerge, that he will make further comment from time to time in the sanguine, pragmatic and unbiased manner that he has here in his substantial opening salvo. Alistair
Message modified by board administrator February 21, 2007, 4:09 pm
Whilst it remains unclear which artists are due applause for their "Hatto" recordings, a fulsome round of applause is certainly due to Christopher Howell for the informative, helpful, unbiased, no-known-holds-barred article that he has just "rushed" into publication here (which of us could so "rush" an essay of almost 13,500 words?!).
Best,
Message Thread:
« Back to thread
Thank you for using the MusicWeb Message Board.
Len Mullenger - Founder of MusicWeb