February 27, 2007
admit it
I’m sure you’ve all been following the story of pianist Joyce Hatto and the mysterious recordings that have surfaced recently, yes? No?
Well. What HAVE you been doing?
The basic story is this: “A talented, conscientious pianist who had enjoyed an active if undistinguished career in Britain falls ill and retreats to a small town. Here in the last years of her life she launches a project to record virtually the entire standard repertoire for the piano. Her recordings, CDs made in her late sixties and seventies, are staggering, showing a masterful technique, a preternatural ability to adapt to different styles, and a depth of musical insight hardly seen elsewhere.” Then she dies, leaving behind what would have been the most comprehensive catalog of recordings ever, pretty much.
Except, of course, it wasn’t really Joyce Hatto in the recordings.
You’re wondering how I know all of this, aren’t you? Because Wade is a big geek and likes classical music and reads Gramophone, the magazine that broke the story earlier this month. “Responding to a tip from a reader, a critic with the British Gramophone magazine, Jeremy Distler, slid Joyce Hatto’s CD of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes into his computer. His iTunes library, linked to a catalogue of about four million CDs, immediately identified it as a recording by the Hungarian virtuoso Laszlo Simon.”
God bless iTunes.
Now, of course, Hatto’s husband has confessed to faking the recordings, which has lead to other questions about why he did it and what Hatto herself might have known about what he was doing. The husband, of course, claims that he did it for her.
Why am I telling you all this? Because this morning, when I read about Hatto’s husband coming clean, I e-mailed Wade at work, and he sent me the link to another piece about why the husband might have done it. And I told him that if anything happened to me, he should feel free to fake entries on this web site.
You’re all kind of looking forward to that now, aren’t you?
Posted by Susan @ 3:38 pm • Uncategorized
RSS feed for comments on this post.
TrackBack URI
February 27th, 2007 at 5:37 pm, Jen Says:
Oh my god.
This totally explains why Dooce has been writing about cleaning her house for months now.
It’s because Jon killed her, dumped the body, and now he’s faking her blog entries.
February 27th, 2007 at 6:03 pm, chris Says:
Hahahaha!!!!
But I thought we had already decided that once rob and wade die we were going to become lesbain lovers and live a life filled with bread, coffee, and alcohol bliss. You know while we mourn.
February 27th, 2007 at 6:25 pm, MJ Says:
So, have Wade write a couple entries and see if we can tell the difference. There could be a prize, say, involving alcohol and chocolate for those who guess correctly. Just a thought…
February 27th, 2007 at 7:30 pm, Magpie Says:
It is a totally great story. It’s been in the Times a couple of times. But will Wade be as great as you? Don’t leave us!
February 27th, 2007 at 7:43 pm, Susan Says:
It really IS a great story, partly because of this: Joyce Hatto had ovarian cancer for THIRTY YEARS before she died. Can you imagine what that must have been like for them? So there is a part of me that is entirely sympathetic to his lie, because I want to believe that he did it because he just wanted her to have the legacy she was never able to earn for herself.
And Wade and I are also relishing the idea that there is a SCANDAL! in the classical music world. Because really, it’s not like Hatto is Britney Spears or anything.
God we are such NERDS.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:02 pm, chilihead Says:
OMG. I was totally following this! I was intrigued that there was foul play in the classical music circle.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:41 pm, Annika Says:
ad that, and found myself wishing that she hadn’t been found out.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:44 pm, Annika Says:
Huh. The beginning of my comment went away! I think all I’d said was “I read about that.”
February 27th, 2007 at 9:38 pm, Mary Says:
You are so funny!
February 27th, 2007 at 11:00 pm, Andie D. Says:
You’d better have Wade start writing guest posts NOW so that we recognize his writing style.
February 28th, 2007 at 9:50 am, Velma Says:
I was just reading an article about this right before I got on-line this morning! I think the key thing we’ll have to watch out for here is if “you” suddenly start posting prolifically on a much wider variety of subjects. You can tell Wade that if we start seeing posts about sports or something, the jig is up.
February 28th, 2007 at 12:23 pm, Jack's Raging Mommy Says:
Neil Gaiman talked about this on his blog too.
So you are as cool as Neil Gaiman!
February 28th, 2007 at 7:33 pm, Arwen Says:
Did you ever see the movie “blue”? It was a French film with Juliette Binoche about a woman who survives a car crash and her husband and daughter die? Everyone thinks he was the great composer but it been her and he had covered for her. I read about Hatto and thought of that movie immediately.
I tihnk Wade would have to write for you while you were bed ridden and then start taking passages from another blog and saying it was yours.