Joyce Hatto drama, BBC1, 23rd December 2012

[Flosshilde]

Well! Wasn't that a pleasant surprise!

Expecting a soapy-sudsy soft focus love story, I was prepared for not very much.....in the event, it turned out to be genuinely moving.

No doubt the quality of the writing played a substantial part in its success?

[Nick Armstrong]

Yes I found it a very pleasant surprise. Did one of the fakes really "win" Building A Library?

Halfway through on delayed replay.

I first heard of her on BAL - I recall one of her 'recordings' came high on one review, can't remember which piece.

EDIT: internet search reveals that it was September 06, BAL on the Chopin Études: Hatto's "recording" came a very close second to Pollini's overall, with several Etudes actually being preferred to Pollini's. Cf. from our forebears: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbradio3/ht...thread=3495943

[ostuni]

Nice voyage back to the past, Caliban! Is wilf active here under another name, or has he disappeared? He seems to have got it righter than some about the manipulated recordings...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Well! Wasn't that a pleasant surprise!

Expecting a soapy-sudsy soft focus love story, I was prepared for not very much.....in the event, it turned out to be genuinely moving.

Great performances from the senior Hatto and Coupes (a second piano-related role for Alfred Molina) but splendid work too from the younger ones: Rory Kinnear is proving himself to be the kind of actor who can play anyone. Maime McCoy was unknown to me but was likewise excellent (and very attractive).

I entirely agree, Mandy.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

An interesting 'dramatisation' of the Hatto scandal. Members may be interested to listen to a podcast in which Ed Seckerson talks to Victoria Wood about her work as screenwriter on the BBC drama: http://sinfinimusic.com/uk/listen/20...victoria-wood/

I thought one or two Gramophone critics got off rather lightly in the circumstances...

[mercia]

an interesting documentary about it a few years ago.

The Great Piano Scam ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSaGMaA3eA4

considering W B-C had past form in dodgy recordings, it surprises me that people didn't keep an eye on him

[Hornspieler]

The Great Piano Scam ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSaGMaA3eA4

considering W B-C had past form in dodgy recordings, it surprises me that people didn't keep an eye on him

It happens all the time! Unless you are listening LIVE (meaning as the performance actually takes place) you can almost guarantee that you are listening to a "cleaned up" version of the actual event.
Coughs are removed, wrong notes replaced - sometimes with extracts from the rehearsal recorded on a previous day.
When I was working for the BBC, there were occasions when we had to edit recordings of concerts in order not to lose a transmission.

Two examples:

We were recording a concert in Midland Region so we did not have our usual audio team. When the performance started, their audio engineer forgot to fade up the main stereo pair of microphones. He realised almost at once and remedied the situation after a few bars. On returning to Bristol with the tapes I took my own favourite audio man into the editing suite. From the concert recording, we copied all the available "clean" stereo atmosphere from between movements. We then mixed that with a previous recording made in our own studio. Nobody up in London noticed that the opening was falsified and the transmission on Radio 3 went ahead.

On another occasion, I was producing a recording of a concert in Ludlow with Campoli playing the Mendelssohn concerto. It was a cold winter's night in a damp church and the audience were coughing their lungs out. Nothing could be done about that, but in the 1st movement, the young 1st horn splattered his long note entry all over the place, before alighting on the correct note.
Next day, in the recording Suite, I said to my audio man "Bill, we've got about seventy coughs on these tapes, so one more will make no difference. Find me the loudest cough that you can and we will superimpose it on that duff horn entry. It worked like a charm and Radio 3 accepted the submitted tape with the sole comment "... many coughs on the recording".

... and this is not an apocryphal anecdote - I was there!

I was walking along the road with the Recording Manager of a well known record company. A certain Russian pianist, of moderate reputation, spotted us and ran over to greet him.

“I've just heard my recording of the Grieg Piano Concerto” he lisped. “Isn't it wonderful?”

The Recording Manager regarded him with faintly disguised scorn. “Yes,” he said. “It is rather good. Don't you wish you could play it like that?”

I did start to watch this TV programme, but it reminded me of so many shattering disappointments that I had encountered among young talented performers who had set their sights too high, or been pushed too hard, that I just had to abandon it after about twenty minutes.

I might try it again later this week.

HS

[salymap]

Fascinating look behind the facade HS. Good morning, by the way

[amateur51]

It happens all the time! Unless you are listening LIVE (meaning as the performance actually takes place) you can almost guarantee that you are listening to a "cleaned up" version of the actual event.
Coughs are removed, wrong notes replaced - sometimes with extracts from the rehearsal recorded on a previous day.
When I was working for the BBC, there were occasions when we had to edit recordings of concerts in order not to lose a transmission.

Two examples:

We were recording a concert in Midland Region so we did not have our usual audio team. When the performance started, their audio engineer forgot to fade up the main stereo pair of microphones. He realised almost at once and remedied the situation after a few bars. On returning to Bristol with the tapes I took my own favourite audio man into the editing suite. From the concert recording, we copied all the available "clean" stereo atmosphere from between movements. We then mixed that with a previous recording made in our own studio. Nobody up in London noticed that the opening was falsified and the transmission on Radio 3 went ahead.

On another occasion, I was producing a recording of a concert in Ludlow with Campoli playing the Mendelssohn concerto. It was a cold winter's night in a damp church and the audience were coughing their lungs out. Nothing could be done about that, but in the 1st movement, the young 1st horn splattered his long note entry all over the place, before alighting on the correct note.
Next day, in the recording Suite, I said to my audio man "Bill, we've got about seventy coughs on these tapes, so one more will make no difference. Find me the loudest cough tht you can and we will superimpose it on that duff horn entry. It worked like a charm and Radio 3 accepted the submitted tape with the sole comment "... many coughs on the recording".

... and this is not an apocryphal anecdote - I was there!

I was walking along the road with the Recording Manager of a well known record company. A certain Russian pianist, of moderate reputation, spotted us and ran over to greet him.

“I've just heard my recording of the Greig Piano Concerto” he lisped. “Isn't it wonderful?”

The Recording Manager regarded him with faintly disguised scorn. “Yes,” he said. “It is rather good. Don't you wish you could play it like that?”

I did start to watch this TV programme, but it reminded of so many shattering disappointments that I had encountered among young talented performers who had set their sights too high, or been pushed too hard, that I just had to abandon it after about twenty minutes.

I might try it again later this week.

HS

Well as one of the most frequent amenders of trypos on the Board I can hardly complain, I suppose

Is Mr Greig a newcomer? And how can you lisp the words 'Grieg Piano concerto'?

[Hornspieler]

Well as one of the most frequent amenders of trypos on the Board I can hardly complain, I suppose

Is Mr Greig a newcomer? And how can you lisp the words 'Grieg Piano concerto'?

It's the Festive season (hic) and Grieg was pronounced like "Gweeg"

HS

[amateur51]

It's the Festive season (hic) and Grieg was pronounced like "Gweeg"

HS

I thought a lithp focussed on sibillants

Festive Greetings Hornspieler!

[Richard Tarleton]

I thought a lithp focussed on sibillants

Festive Greetings Hornspieler!

You mean focuthed on thibillanth ,Ams, er, Amth

[amateur51]

You mean focuthed on thibillanth ,Ams, er, Amth

touché!

[Nick Armstrong]

Is wilf active here under another name, or has he disappeared? He seems to have got it righter than some about the manipulated recordings...

I seem to recall that wilf announced just before the closure of the old R3 boards that he wouldn't be joining the new Forum. Don't think he said why but I regret it, his posts were unfailingly committed and interesting and wise, and we had a lot of concert-going in common. And as you say, he seems to have smelt a rat before most other people... !

[Flosshilde]

I thought a lithp focussed on sibillants

Festive Greetings Hornspieler!

Jonathon Woss is well known fow his inability to pwonounce 'r'.