The revelation that recordings by late British concert pianist Joyce Hatto are actually the works of other performers came to light only after a music critic popped one of her CDs into an iTunes-equipped computer.



The critic expected iTunes to dutifully identify Hatto's disc and recordings, but received a surprise when the program said the works were those of someone completely different.

Hatto had been a widely-hailed pianist in the years before her 2006 death. The New Scientist blog about the incident said her recordings showed a "masterful command" of works by the likes of Liszt and Schubert.

What iTunes found was a digital fingerprint in her music. When it checked that against Gracenote's CDDB, it revealed to the critic that Lászlo Simon had been the performer of the work on the CD. He tried another Hatto CD, and it came up as the work of Yefim Bronfman.

Further checking at the Pristine Audio firm found that her recordings were either complete copies of performances by others, or they had been slowed down just a tiny bit.

"We have yet to investigate a Hatto recording that has not proved to be a hoax," Pristine Audio said on their web pages dedicated to comparing Hatto's work to other performers. They also called the hoax "audacious."

Her husband, William Barrington-Coupe, produced and released the recordings, according to The Telegraph UK. He claimed to be just as mystified as everyone else and could not explain how this possibly could have happened. The report said Hatto had been a cancer victim and had not performed live for decades leading up to her death. Barrington-Coupe insists the 100-plus CDs he has released were her work.

---

Tags: iTunes, Joyce Hatto, Pristine Audio

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl

Bookmark WebProNews: