[ 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 Len Mullenger on February 23, 2007, 12:00 pm, in reply to "Re: Hatto? Ha!" I interviewed Joyce Hatto on 26 July 2005 in the restaurant of the University Arms Hotel, Cambridge. We met (for the first and last time) at c.12.30 and I recorded a two hour conversation with her over a most enjoyable lunch with her and Mr Barrington-Coupe. You will be dismayed to learn that the tapes were wiped only a few months later to make way for another assignment. The interview was, as far as I was concerned, just another interview with another pianist – and it was not one that, shall we say, I would ever have returned to for repeated listening. Joyce was engaging company but definitely the most difficult interviewee of the myriad interviews I have conducted with musicians over the years. To get her to answer a question directly was like trying to grab a bar of soap blindfold in a car wash. To extract a chronology of events or indeed a straightforward biography from the recorded conversation was one of the most time-consuming writing jobs I have ever worked on, and I like to think that after all this time I am adept at getting illuminating and even structured responses from interviewees. There were subsequently many emails and follow-up phone calls between myself, JH and WB-C to clarify matters. I refer you to the feature I wrote for International Piano (Jan/Feb 2006) for the finished article (the long delay between interview and publication was simply due to the already full schedule of the magazine), the first to be published in Great Britain, Richard Dyer’s piece in his Boston newspaper having preceded it by a few weeks. Just to put a few doubts at rest, the lady I interviewed bore a striking resemblance to the two portraits now so familiar in the press – the same rather pretty, sharp features and a face of keen intelligence and one that had ‘worn well’. I would have put her in her mid-60s, very slight build with a full head of reddish/auburn hair. (I mention this because of her ongoing cancer treatment – it might have been an expensive wig but I was too much of a gent to ask. You don’t, do you.) She was dressed in a once-expensive, rather dated tweedy twin set and pearls. Smart. Elegant. I wanted to know what her stretch was like. ‘Nothing extraordinary,’ she said. ‘About a tenth.’ I asked if she would mind me holding her hands which were small and had some liver spots. They were small, extremely pliable but muscular. Pianists hands – at least the romantic notion of them (the absolute opposite of, say, Ashkenazy’s which, as you know, are like chipolatas). So let’s have no more conspiracy theories about her existence. If the lady was a well-chosen double, then no actress on earth could have learned her lines as well. Of course I talked to her just as I would to any other pianist I have interviewed, knowledgably (I hope), trading gossip, views of other pianists, the repertoire and general pianorak chit-chat. She was, as you’d expect, extremely quick and fluent with a string of anecdotes and an immense knowledge of the piano literature. You couldn’t ad lib the musicological facts she came out with without being a thorough, experienced musician. She was particularly articulate on her teaching methods. By the by, I recall the name of only one pupil, Gail Buckingham, who recorded some early Liszt, I seem to recall, on Revolution (not very well – another Con Artist release?). (And again, quite incidentally but strangely coincidentally, the day after this story broke when I was being asked about the Rach 2&3 recording, a friend popped in for a cup of tea. She had never been to my house before and is nothing to do with the music world. I mentioned the breaking news and Joyce Hatto’s name. ‘Joyce Hatto? The Pianist?’ I was astonished that this friend had ever heard of her. ‘Yes, she taught me at my school in Hertfordshire in the late ‘60s. Nice lady – I remember the ends of her fingers were always rather red. She gave me a recording of her playing a Rachmaninov concerto. Still got it somewhere…’.) Joyce and I took to each other very quickly with WB-C chipping in from the sidelines throughout. As I say, it was an enjoyable, stimulating meeting but one which, even as I drove home, left me anxious because of all the loose ends I knew I should have to tie up. Having set up a clear route down the M1, she would be off on to the B1234 in a trice, and it was difficult to drag her back on to the motorway again. Endearing but somewhat frustrating. And by the way, the lady I interviewed was the same as the one who was interviewed by New Zealand Radio, a phone interview that I gather is currently doing the rounds on the internet. With me, she chattered away precipitately mainly about the past. The present was a difficult area. I see that now. The present was dominated by hospital, cancer and its treatment. One listened with sympathy. I am not going to start on the whole controversy at this time (midnight now, as I’ve been trying to catch up on work after three days on the phone). I shall just add that Joyce and her husband were immensely kind and generous to me. She bequeathed me some of her music, a box of wonderful concert programmes from the ‘20s and ‘30s (Pachmann, Rachmaninov, Paderewski etc) and a beautiful portrait of Grieg signed by the composer. And – I anticipate you – that is genuine! It makes me immeasurably sad to think that Joyce Hatto might have been party to this awful saga. That is why I am hoping (with a hope that fades each day) that the first part of your Scenario 4 is the correct one. .......................... What I forgot to mention in response to Chris Howell’s query was that I have a hand-written thank-you card from Joyce dated 27 July 2005. I have no autograph with which to compare it. Another small detail is that the interview in Cambridge finished at about 14.30 when Joyce, who had clearly tired over the course of lunch, excused herself and left in order (I was told) to take a pre-booked car to Addenbrooke’s for her latest hospital visit. I was left with WB-C to continue our very pleasant conversation. He went to pains to extol the virtues of Joyce’s Schubert B flat Sonata. I must say that when I listened to it the following day, I thought it one of the most beautifully played and proportioned performances I had ever heard. I should love to know whose it is as, for me, it gets just about everything right. May I propose that MusicWeb devotes a special section devoted to all the recordings that have been ripped off? At the moment, the only concern seems to be the detective work and the thrill of discovery. The artists that have been used in this scam deserve to be given far greater prominence, and I think it incumbent on all of us to find something positive in all this. I hope you don’t mind me suggesting this. With best wishes, Jeremy Nicholas www.jeremynicholas.com
217.155.206.169
Note received from Jeremy Nicholas 23-2-07
Message Thread:
« Back to thread
Thank you for using the MusicWeb Message Board.
Len Mullenger - Founder of MusicWeb