I was right smack in the epicenter of the hype campaign about Hatto. If I may explain....
I'm a longtime contributor to rec.music.classical.recordings, which newsgroup also contains a pianophile named Tom Deacon. Deacon was, from 1989-92, vice president in charge of programming at KUSC, and was executive producer for the Great Pianists of the 20th Century set for Philips.
These may at first seem to be admirable credits, but it was Deacon who brought Bonnie Grice to KUSC, commencing what I refer to as "the bad years" of the station; and the Great Pianists series has, to steal a P.D.Q. Bach line, "more errors than an early Mets game." (For one thing, it left out such nobodies as Egon Petri and Mieczyslaw Horszowski, and included stars such as Lyubov Bruk and Mark Taimanov.)
In r.m.c.r., Deacon appointed himself chief promoter of the "Hatto" CDs, excoriating anybody who disagreed with him or even raised doubts about their provenance. I find Deacon to be personally detestable for many reasons, and regard his opinions as without value. For this reason, I wasn't taken in -- although I admit that I bought the two Brahms Piano Concerti, just out of curiosity back in 2005, and listened to them once, over headphones, while typing. (I haven't "officially" listened to a CD in my collection until I've done so via loudspeakers, in my living room.) I believe I called them "pretty darn good," but I heard no evidence of the claimed miraculousness and never felt moved to investigate any further, probably out of fatigue.
There is plenty about "Hattogate" on the Web now, but for detailed breaking reports I refer you to Jessica Duchen's Classical Music Blog, particularly this entry, for an interesting reference closely related to the above.
Hatto Trick
I'm a longtime contributor to rec.music.classical.recordings, which newsgroup also contains a pianophile named Tom Deacon. Deacon was, from 1989-92, vice president in charge of programming at KUSC, and was executive producer for the Great Pianists of the 20th Century set for Philips.
These may at first seem to be admirable credits, but it was Deacon who brought Bonnie Grice to KUSC, commencing what I refer to as "the bad years" of the station; and the Great Pianists series has, to steal a P.D.Q. Bach line, "more errors than an early Mets game." (For one thing, it left out such nobodies as Egon Petri and Mieczyslaw Horszowski, and included stars such as Lyubov Bruk and Mark Taimanov.)
In r.m.c.r., Deacon appointed himself chief promoter of the "Hatto" CDs, excoriating anybody who disagreed with him or even raised doubts about their provenance. I find Deacon to be personally detestable for many reasons, and regard his opinions as without value. For this reason, I wasn't taken in -- although I admit that I bought the two Brahms Piano Concerti, just out of curiosity back in 2005, and listened to them once, over headphones, while typing. (I haven't "officially" listened to a CD in my collection until I've done so via loudspeakers, in my living room.) I believe I called them "pretty darn good," but I heard no evidence of the claimed miraculousness and never felt moved to investigate any further, probably out of fatigue.
There is plenty about "Hattogate" on the Web now, but for detailed breaking reports I refer you to Jessica Duchen's Classical Music Blog, particularly this entry, for an interesting reference closely related to the above.