Hatto update
Feb. 27th, 2007 07:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranA "confession" from Hatto's husband, on the Gramophone website.
Although she kept up a rigorous practice regime, Barrington-Coupe says that Hatto was suffering more than she admitted, even to herself. Recording session after recording session was marred by her many grunts of pain as she played, and her husband was at a loss to know how to cover the problem passages.
Until, that is, he remembered the story of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf covering the high notes for Kirsten Flagstad in the famous EMI recording of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Surely something similar could apply here, he reasoned. He began searching for pianists whose sound and style were similar to that of his wife, and once he had found them he would insert small patches of their recordings to cover his wife’s grunts.
As he grew more adept at the practice, he began to take longer sections to ease the editing process, and discovered, he says, by accident how to digitally stretch the time of the source recordings to disguise the sound. He would, he says, use Hatto’s performances as a blueprint and source recordings which were along the same lines (Laszlo, for instance, shared a teacher with his wife and so, Barington-Coupe says, had the same kind of style and technique)
Considering the background to this story, it's still very difficult to know what to believe. It does seem clear that there's an amazing story here, whether it's the product of reality or a remarkable imagination. If Barington-Coupe is still lying, then he seems to have all the talents required of a good author - including an ability not just to construct consistent explanations, but also touching stories - stories that feel right emotionally as well as logically. Okay, so maybe "reliable business partner" and "ethical behaviour" are still missing from "all the talents required of a good author".
Is it possible that Hatto was unaware of what was going on? It still seems unlikely, although it is at least vaguely possible.
Although she kept up a rigorous practice regime, Barrington-Coupe says that Hatto was suffering more than she admitted, even to herself. Recording session after recording session was marred by her many grunts of pain as she played, and her husband was at a loss to know how to cover the problem passages.
Until, that is, he remembered the story of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf covering the high notes for Kirsten Flagstad in the famous EMI recording of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Surely something similar could apply here, he reasoned. He began searching for pianists whose sound and style were similar to that of his wife, and once he had found them he would insert small patches of their recordings to cover his wife’s grunts.
As he grew more adept at the practice, he began to take longer sections to ease the editing process, and discovered, he says, by accident how to digitally stretch the time of the source recordings to disguise the sound. He would, he says, use Hatto’s performances as a blueprint and source recordings which were along the same lines (Laszlo, for instance, shared a teacher with his wife and so, Barington-Coupe says, had the same kind of style and technique)
Considering the background to this story, it's still very difficult to know what to believe. It does seem clear that there's an amazing story here, whether it's the product of reality or a remarkable imagination. If Barington-Coupe is still lying, then he seems to have all the talents required of a good author - including an ability not just to construct consistent explanations, but also touching stories - stories that feel right emotionally as well as logically. Okay, so maybe "reliable business partner" and "ethical behaviour" are still missing from "all the talents required of a good author".
Is it possible that Hatto was unaware of what was going on? It still seems unlikely, although it is at least vaguely possible.
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 08:52 pm (UTC)Second, he could simply have asked her to play the piece several times, or to play the bars in question - I know Karajan worked like that, which is one reason I hate his recordings, but it's not unknown.
Thirdly, he could have placed the microphone better so that her grunts were less obvious.
Fourthly, good audio software allows to cut out certain noises - and that includes grunts...
This sounds like hefty backpedalling. He's been found out, now he tries to make it so that he ends up in a compassionate light.
I don't buy that. Unless he's severelly mentally disturbed, but that would still not make it ok.