19February
Another one to file with Kaycee Nicole, folks.
Joyce Hatto was a high-quality and prolific piano player. She amassed a 100-CD discography between 1990 and 2004, and was highly praised in reviews. Mrs. Hatto was said to have suffered from cancer for over 30 years, and never appeared in public.
Now, Gramophone has reported something very strange. You hear this Liszt work of Mrs. Hatto's? That's by Laszlo Simon, that is. Note for note, as one might expect, but millisecond for millisecond, which one would certainly not. The files are so identical that they return the same 128-bit hash key, a mathematical process that can distinguish between 3x1032 different files. Another track was stretched by slightly over 15%, enough to turn a slow piece into a very slow one.
The work's been done by Andrew Rose of Pristine Audio. It's verified by independent research at the Royal Holloway College, sparked off by that obvious hotbed of classical debate, rec.music.classical.recordings. When was the last time Usenet had anything to offer? Last month, at an upper bound.
The follow-ups have come from Jessica Duchen (2) (3), Alex Ross says, It's plagarism. Overgrown Path has tried to speak with William Barrington-Coupe, Mrs. Hatto's husband and publisher, but calls have not been returned; they've declined to speak to the B.B.C. as well. There's a discussion thread at Piano Street, claims of precedence at Classics To-day, and Soho the Dog wraps up the philosophical loose ends.
For the classical music buffs picking up on this post, a brief history. Kaycee Nicole was a 17-year-old girl who wrote an online diary about her battle with leukaemia. She corresponded with people by letter and over the telephone. Only after her sudden death did it emerge that Kaycee had been completely invented by Debbie Swenson, who had amalgamated people she knew into the one fictional character. This hoax lasted about eighteen months, and collapsed within days of the character's death in May 2001. From the description, it sounds as though Joyce Hatto - or her widower - has been living in fantasy land for the last decade and more.
