Hatto Hobson Hoax Revealed!
Here’s my favorite quote from the New Yorker piece:
Among the most diligent and dispassionate students of the Hatto hoax is Andrys Basten, the woman who had posted the “Mephisto Waltz” on her Web site. She is a retired computer consultant who lives in Northern California. According to her, the Godowsky and other examples in which recordings have been sped up or slowed down—“with results which some listeners even now can find more pleasing than the original pianists’ versions”—suggest that Hatto and Barry had set out to create “their own ideal versions, using her musical ideas and his technological know-how.” In Basten’s interpretation of their interpretation, “He was the producer of these improved versions, while she was the musician behind them. They both could enjoy the accolades rolling in.
[full article highly recommended and freely available here:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/09/17/070917fa_fact_singer?currentPage=all ]
Here’s the post by Andrew Rose of Pristine Audio (where he blogged the discovery process):
http://www.pristineclassical.com/HattoHoax2.html
