26 February 2007

Joyce "the Imposter" Hatto

I’ve been meaning to write about Joyce Hatto — aka “the greatest living pianist that almost no one has heard of” — for the past week, but now that the New York Times has published an article, all I need to do is to provide the link ... here.

Shoot the Piano Player
The New York Times
February 26, 2007


Intriguingly, she gave to the music a developed although oddly malleable personality. She could do Schubert in one style, and then Prokofiev almost as though she was a new person playing a different piano — an astonishing, chameleon-like artistic ability. … [T]he entire Joyce Hatto oeuvre recorded after 1989 appears to be stolen from the CDs of other pianists. It is a scandal unparalleled in the annals of classical music.


Ha!

Incidentally, this article was written by Denis Dutton, a philosopher who teaches at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and whose personal website is well worth a visit anyway. (You might’ve noticed the link to his site under the “Miscellany” category to the right.)

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