The essence of the music itself is there

When does a recording become a forgery? How much can be added that wasn't created by the musicians on the label before it is a fake? My post on a 'recreation' of Glenn Gould's 1955 Goldbergs raises some interesting questions, and so does the following story.

By chance I bought last week the excellent transcriptions of Handel's recorder sonatas for cello and harpsichord played by Tatty Theo (cello) and Carolyn Gibley (harpsichord). The girls are part of the local baroque ensemble, The Brook Street Band. The recording was made a few miles from here in Raveningham Church in Norfolk, the label is Avie, and the producer and engineer is Simon Fox-Gál.

Now here is the first interesting point. The sleeve contains the following message: 'Reverberation included in this recording from Classical Reverberations Impulses produced by Ernest Cholakis for Numerical Sound'.

Research reveals the Toronto based Numerical Sound: 'develops low level manipulations of sound's primary elements. Essentially, we deconstruct, analyze and separate sound by recognizing individual events, elements, or spectral properties, and depending on the situation use the resulting components to modify existing sounds or reconstruct new ones. For example, we might separate a tone into its harmonic or partials or percussive components, and then rebuild those elements into something new.'

A number of high profile classical recordings use Numerical Sound's technology, which shapes sounds to pre-determined profiles in a similar way to the Loft Recordings Tournemire project that I wrote about here. The Numerical Sound website includes some musical examples before and after reprocessing.

I don't want this to get out of proportion. Artificial reverberation has been added to recordings for decades (although why it is needed in the acoustics of a church is a puzzle). On the Handel sonatas disc we are told the sound shaping technology has been used for the reverberation only. But this technology can also reshape instrumental sounds, and this is where the story gets very interesting.

Producer and engineer Simon Fox-Gál of the Handel disc is the grandson of the Viennese born composer Hans Gál (photo below), and he has created recordings of his grandfather's orchestral scores using another technology that has featured here before - Vienna Symphonic Library - which synthesizes music using digital samples of real instruments. Here are Fox-Gal's words about the Hans Gál project: ' It's not a real orchestra, but the essence of the music itself is there, time and our imagination being the only limits to the extent to which we can achieve perfection in the smallest of musical details.' You can listen to the 'not a real orchestra' playing Hans Gál's Symphony No 2 here.

Yes, all perfectly above board, and just the wonders of technology. But let's not forget these words - 'He thinks he began editing “ambience” in the late 1980s.'

Now wonder How much is Stravinsky, and how much is Craft?
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Click here for a Glenn Gould forgery

Or is it a forgery? Read here how digital technology helps build a virtual concert hall.
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Joyce Hatto - the other story

Last week a reader contacted me with a story to tell about Joyce Hatto. I said I would publish the story without comment or editing. Here it is:

It is necessary to cast a slightly different light on the facts and myths, some of which even cast doubts on Hatto’s very existence (The Times). Joyce Hatto was a brilliant pianist, a great teacher, a very highly informed and well-read person, but above all an inspiring human being. I first encountered her purely by chance when, as an immigrant fresh off the boat from India, desiring to make a career as a pianist, badly trained, impoverished, alone and penniless, she took me on as a pupil in 1965.

As her pupil, I lived from one encounter with her to the next. Each encounter was, for me, a fresh experience – reflecting her constantly repeated admonition, “You may have played this a million times, but for the audience, it has to be as though it is the first listening.” Her ability to impart her knowledge – both of technique and of interpretation – were beyond question. And she knew how to draw out of each pupil what she saw as his or her latent qualities. The series of Pupils’ Concerts that she set up in the Purcell Room attest to this: the range of performances, from Claire Walton’s ephemeral performances of Impressionist composers, to Jacqueline Fairhead’s brooding Schumann and Gail Buckingham’s dramatic flair (Lizst), only served to reflect the chameleon-like qualities that later detractors now ascribe to her. This can be verified by listening to Gail Buckingham’s Lizst “Early Works and Operatic Transcriptions” recorded under Joyce’s encouragement for RCF (005).

Joyce achieved this by rarely speaking of herself, but by always looking closely into the hearts of her pupils. When playing the first two notes of the Lizst Twelfth Rhapsody at one lesson, she stopped me, looking into my eyes and asking, “Tell me, is God dead?” Shocked, I replied, “As a matter of fact, he is.” This opened up a long discussion on literature, of which she clearly knew much.

Joyce was a devoted teacher who cared deeply about every pupil. The only time I saw her looking at all distressed when was a pupil had disappointed her. When she learned of my own intention to go into teaching, she hammered one sentence in: “You have no right to teach, unless you believe deeply in the ability of every pupil.” This is something that has echoed through my mind throughout my own long (and generally considered successful) career as a teacher both in London and in Israel.

As I read of the family history, one of the things that strikes me sharply is that despite the distress she must have encountered in the late 60’s over Barrington-Coupe’s difficulties, she never displayed a sign of it. Just as, at the audition with her, she had said, “Do not come and spill the beans over my carpet,” (my playing was “emotional” but totally lacking in discipline), she never gave the slightest clue as to what was going on in her personal life. Rather, she always looked her best, smiled warmly and welcomed one with a befitting elegance and grace.

She did make occasional references to the music world – whether referring to the cut-throat atmosphere that exists between competing artists, the cruelty of certain critics, the “philistine” attitude to Art in some establishments, the difficulties of recording when building works might be taking place nearby or when an aeroplane flew over during a session. But such critical comments were few and far between. On the contrary, when I had told her of how worthwhile it had been to hike all the way to Edinburgh in order to hear Annie Fischer play at the Festival, she received the comment as though it was a compliment to her own playing.

Although I had tried, in vain, to get in touch with some of my fellow-pupils from the late 60’s in order to see what had come of them musically, although I have not been able to communicate with them since the Hattogate Affair made the headlines, I am sure that my fellow pupils will relate to her in the same vein. If there is only one thing that makes me glad about her demise, it is that she has not been exposed to some of the statements now being made about her.

In fact, if there is anything to be learned from the affair, it is that the commercialization of music-making has taken on such proportions that there are innumerable potential Ashkenazis who live a life of oblivion because of marketing and purchasing practices that now dominate music making. If Joyce Hatto suffered in her lifetime, she never showed it, but would have suffered from this.

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Paul Hindemith - a true visionary

"You are not permitted to sell unsanitary macaroni or mustard, but nobody objects to your undermining the public's health by feeding it musical forgeries." Paul Hindemith (left) writing in his 1952 book A Composer's World:" Now read the rest of the story.
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