Sonata no.1 in F sharp minor FLAC: http://www.mediafire.com/?srb2vrfy87hdfhl
"Water Music" WAV: http://www.mediafire.com/?k10cc366tj8ccah
Sonata no.4 in G major (Allegro giusto ~ Allegretto quasi andante ~ Allegro) FLAC: http://www.mediafire.com/?co3dyi3omgkg5z5
"Toccata" WAV: http://www.mediafire.com/?3bvhss0v04unpk5
Joyce Hatto, piano Revolution RCF.010 Recorded: c.1969. RCA UK pressing/matrices: 1E / 1E STEREO files
Whilst this LP has very fine piano sound the matrices appear to have been contaminated - causing numerous loud 'ticks/clicks', etc.
These are now 'mostly' removed and reveal performances as being far better than when heard through a barrage of distracting surface defects.
Additionally (& apparently no longer online) is Radio New Zealand's http://www.mediafire.com/?gdf82hgns21aod6 28 May 2006 Murray Khouri programme - with Joyce Hatto speaking by telephone on 7 April 2006. The 'Revolution' master-tapes are apparently now 'lost'. Sleeve-note >>>
COPYRIGHT NOTICE : This is made available solely for the purpose of evaluating/reviewing the copyrighted recording, after which it must not be otherwise stored/copied. By downloading the file/s you agree to accept these conditions.
Thanks for these. Bax's piano music is underrated I think and despite recordings like these (and the Chandos ones of the 80s and 90s) it has still never enjoyed the circulation it deserves.
ReplyDeleteI'm always keen to hear more authentic Hatto and I'm looking forward to listening to this, and to her interview.
Hello Steven,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the interest!
I probably mentioned this one quite some time back - but the pressing was so noisy that I doubted it could be successfully edited: but 'yet, yet more' cleaning has enabled a good result - and the performances (assuming this really is Hatto! - not compared it to her Bax Symphonic Variations - where I got the impression that she was 'pounding-away') really are quite convincing..and make a better case than, say, John McCabe's mvt.2 from Sonata 4: which really, in Hatto's performance, sounds very 'French Impressionistic').
So you should enjoy this!!
lot of thanks! but is this really Hatto?
ReplyDeleteFarhan Malik says: "It is now widely believed that all of Joyce Hatto's CDs are fakes except for the disc containing Arnold Bax's Symphonic Variations, which she really did record in 1970 with the conductor Vernon Handley".
http://www.farhanmalik.com/hatto/main.html
Since this disc is LP and not a CD released by Concert Artist label absent in his list of Hatto's forgeries, there is still a real possibility, that it's authentic Hatto's work.
i've never heard Bax' Symphonic Variations, so i should be glad to hear them performed by the Hatto - Handley duo (even knowing about the cuts in the score). have you any plan to uncover that recording and demonstrate it to the public?
I can see the point re: the Bax: Symphonic Variations - as at least she was seen by a conductor/orchestra at the recording sessions/s !!
ReplyDeleteThe situation with the Bax Sonata's is that, apparently, the master-tapes were 'lost' - see comment on the 7 March 2011 RMCR thread >> Joyce Hatto (!) plays Bax' "Toccata" <<
Christopher Webber's comment:
"Barry wrote to MusicWeb about eight years ago, concerning Hatto's solo
Bax recording. He said, as I recall, that he wished to issue it on CD
but that Decca (?) had "lost the master tapes" and that he was looking
for a decent LP to work from.
I offered him my own private remastering made from a very high quality
commercial tape (owned by Graham Parlett), which sounds very good indeed
- certainly more than good enough for CD issue.
Barry decided that "for technical reasons" the Bax solo disc would have
to remain unissued until the master tape turned up. But the gulf between
this pianistic style and the "great pianist" of the fraudster years is
indeed demonstrable and may well have unsettled him".
The 'commercial tape' presumably is the Cassette - issued by Concert Artist - and is highly unlikely to be of the inherent sound-quality of the LP.
I do have the Symphonic Variations (mastered/pressed by CBS UK) - bought it originally as a deletion c.1972 - but thought that was still on CD - from a master-tape??
Incidentally 'Hyperion Records' seem to be claiming copyright - as the linked YouTube video of Sonata 1 was taken down...though, currently, it's on - @ only half its length!!
Apparently, this is among the few legitimate recordings of a Haito performance. Most of the others attributed to her are fakes foisted off by her husband, Barrington-Coupe and later revealed in a series of Gramophone issues. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Hatto
ReplyDeleteHello Bill.
ReplyDeleteI'm mostly am making this available due to the relative scarcity of recorded performances - and as it seems this one won't be on CD (unless a 'similarly good' LP can be used as the source: and had better not swipe my transfer..).
When set against some small-label 'unknown' pianists of the 50's/60's it's, pianistically, not at all bad (I gained a higher opinion of the performances whilst tediously editing '99%' of the detritus away): so there really should be more Hatto's from that period - given the 'advantage' of being married to W.B-C: ie. even as 'private' recordings.
There are other Hatto recordings of this era listed as follows:
ReplyDeleteConcert Artist 7-inch EPs:
Walter Gaze Cooper Piano Concerto #3
Elspeth Rhys-Williams, 4 Impressions, 2 Songs
Michael Williams Introduction & Allegro for piano & orchestra
Saga:
"Music for the Films" (Addinsell, Bath, Chas. Williams) w/London Variety Theatre Orchestra/Gilbert Vinter
Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue w/Hamburg Pro Musica/George Byrd[70]
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2 w/Hamburg Pro Musica/George Hurst (who is still alive and could presumably confirm the sessions if necessary)
Chopin Sonatas #1 & 3
Chopin Minor Piano works (Albumblatt, Fugue, Andante cantabile etc.)
Delta:
Mozart Piano Concertos K. 466 & 488 w/Pasdeloup Orchestra/Isaie Disenhaus
Mozart Piano Concerto K. 453, Rondo K. 382 w/London Classic Players/David Littaur
Fidelio:
Chopin 10 Nocturnes
Gershwin 16 items from the "Song Book"
Lecuona assorted piano pieces
Revolution:
Bax Piano Sonata #1, Piano Sonata #4, Toccata, Water Music
Bax Symphonic Variations in E w/Guildford Philharmonic/Vernon Handley
Boulevard
Rhapsody in Blue & An American in Paris from George Gershwin, with The New York Symphonica, conducted by George Byrd
Perhaps I am alone in preferring the style of playing on this solo Bax disc to the later releases "ascribed" to Hatto. The playing is intelligent, musical and - perhaps ironically - very honest in its presentation of the music. It is a style not much in fashion now, and certainly has nothing of the virtuoso about it, but it is worth celebrating in its own right for what it is, rather than what it isn't.
Anyway, if anyone ever discovers some of the missing discs from the list above, I for one would love to hear them! Not often one hears the name of Gaze Cooper these days, for example.
I'll leave The Hatto Legacy for others to 'do battle' with inferior pressings: and, in any event, only otherwise have the other Bax (I recall, as a child, my Aunt saying how poor her Rachmaninov PC.2 was....)...and most of her LP's are pretty un-common.
ReplyDeleteIf the 1963 ARC Fidelity pressing wasn't so 'problematic' I would've uploaded the 1954/5 Bernard Vitebsky: Beethoven PC.3: a 'plain-spun' performance - but it was too much of a chore to edit.
Re: Symphonic Variations. I was at the concert in Guildford when Hatto performed this Vernon Handley, and they recorded it shortly afterwards. So for this issue, and I suspect the Bax piano here, Hatto really was the pianist.I don't know if it's still available, but the Variations made it on to a Concert Artist CD, along with Bax's 4th Symphony with Handley and the Guildford orchestra (not a bad performance, but a rather thin sounding recording).
ReplyDeleteThat's rather impressive!
ReplyDeleteWithout checking I think the Guildford was augmented by players from the Royal Philharmonic - so maybe you recognized some players from that orchestra?
Only uploaded this due to its non-appearance on CD: the Symphonic Variations would have been much easier to transfer - though the recording (Abbey Road?) struck me as sounding 'odd' when bought initially as a deletion from 'Orchesography' in Cecil Court - where they possibly had some other 'Revolution's' (think I saw the Bax 4/Pine Trees - but I recalled the poor reviews): with some possibly never having received a 'Gramophone' review - though Records & Recording also reviewed them.
The old Aeolian/Cassini Elgar Quintet (+ the dire Bax: 'Legend') reissued on Revolution - and the Elgar/RVW Qt.1 (the former not reissued - Summit stereo) - are among those 'in limbo' - and which I will likely not now be transferring...due the low-level of 'feedback': as I don't consider something like an average of one 'response' per 1000 downloads to be acceptable!!!!
Thanks for making this available - looking forward to hearing something by this rather pathetic figure.
ReplyDeleteAside from the possibility that she had dementia for some time (the telephone conversation from a few months prior to her death doesn't, necessarily, point to that...) maybe she, and her husband, found the fraud hugely entertaining!
ReplyDelete