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112-501: Joyce Hilda Hatto (5 September 1928 – 29 June 2006) was an English concert pianist and piano teacher. In 1956 she married William Barrington-Coupe , a record producer who was convicted of Purchase Tax evasion in 1966. Hatto became famous very late in life when unauthorised copies of commercial recordings made by other pianists were released under her name, resulting in high praise from critics. The fraud did not come to light until 2007, more than six months after her death. Joyce Hatto

224-406: A waltz in her memory. Tchaikovsky's father, who had also contracted cholera but recovered fully, sent him back to school immediately in the hope that classwork would occupy the boy's mind. Isolated, Tchaikovsky compensated with friendships with fellow students that became lifelong; these included Aleksey Apukhtin and Vladimir Gerard. Music, while not an official priority at school, also bridged

336-431: A bachelor for most of his life. In 1868, he met Belgian soprano Désirée Artôt with whom he considered marriage, but, owing to various circumstances, the relationship ended. Tchaikovsky later claimed she was the only woman he ever loved. In 1877, at the age of 37, he wed a former student, Antonina Miliukova . The marriage was a disaster. Mismatched psychologically and sexually, the couple lived together for only two and

448-552: A complaint was made by the copyright holder of one of the original recordings. This did not occur. In 2009 Channel 4 in Britain broadcast a 20-minute documentary about the scam. Barrington-Coupe died at his home in Royston on 19 October 2014. A TV film, Loving Miss Hatto , was filmed in Ireland and screened on BBC Television on 23 December 2012. The screenplay was by Victoria Wood and

560-557: A court of law". Nicholas's challenge was not taken up and in December Radio New Zealand was able in all innocence, to re-broadcast its hour-long programme of glowing appreciation of the Concert Artist Hatto CDs. This programme included excerpts from a telephone interview with Hatto herself, conducted on 6 April 2006, in which she said nothing to dispel the presenter's assumption that she was the sole pianist on all

672-523: A formal influence but also as an example of musical dramaturgy and self-expression. Leon Botstein argues the music of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner also left their imprints on Tchaikovsky's orchestral style. The late-Romantic trend for writing orchestral suites, begun by Franz Lachner , Jules Massenet , and Joachim Raff after the rediscovery of Bach 's works in that genre, may have influenced Tchaikovsky to try his own hand at them. Tchaikovsky's teacher Anton Rubinstein's opera The Demon became

784-458: A group known as the Belyayev circle , named after a merchant and amateur musician who became an influential music patron and publisher. Tchaikovsky spent much time in this circle, becoming far more at ease with them than he had been with the 'Five' and increasingly confident in showcasing his music alongside theirs. This relationship lasted until Tchaikovsky's death. In 1892, Tchaikovsky was voted

896-407: A half months before Tchaikovsky left, overwrought emotionally and suffering from acute writer's block . Tchaikovsky's family remained supportive of him during this crisis and throughout his life. Tchaikovsky's marital debacle may have forced him to face the full truth about his sexuality; he never blamed Antonina for the failure of their marriage. Tchaikovsky was also aided by Nadezhda von Meck ,

1008-460: A homosexual acquaintance: "Petashenka used to drop by with the criminal intention of observing the Cadet Corps, which is right opposite our windows, but I've been trying to discourage these compromising visits—and with some success." In another one, he wrote: "After our walk, I offered him some money, which was refused. He does it for the love of art and adores men with beards." Tchaikovsky lived as

1120-497: A lifetime annual pension of 3,000 rubles from the Tsar. This made him the premier court composer, in practice if not in the actual title. Despite Tchaikovsky's disdain for public life, he now participated in it as part of his increasing celebrity and out of a duty he felt to promote Russian music. He helped support his former pupil Sergei Taneyev , who was now director of Moscow Conservatory, by attending student examinations and negotiating

1232-475: A long history in the record industry. The critic Neville Cardus had been dazzled by her playing, according to a story found in one obituary. From 2003 onwards the recordings attributed to Hatto began to receive enthusiastic praise from a small number of participants on various Usenet groups, mailing lists and web forums , sparked by a blind-listening test in December 2002 posted on ThePiano Yahoo! group featuring

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1344-597: A lot of thought" to suing Barrington-Coupe for damages but was inclined not to do so on the assumption that the hoax recordings were "a desperate attempt to build a shrine to a dying wife". He also said that he had advised László Simon to take advantage of the publicity by securing more concert engagements. Barrington-Coupe himself said that he "had given up worrying" about possible legal consequences and added that "I don't consider I've hurt anybody. A lot of attention has been drawn to forgotten artists." The Hertfordshire Constabulary said that it would not take any action unless

1456-601: A member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in France, only the second Russian subject to be so honored (the first was sculptor Mark Antokolsky ). The following year, the University of Cambridge in England awarded Tchaikovsky an honorary Doctor of Music degree. Discussion of Tchaikovsky's personal life, especially his sexuality , has perhaps been among the most extensive of any composer in

1568-419: A model for the final tableau of Eugene Onegin . So did Léo Delibes ' ballets Coppélia and Sylvia for The Sleeping Beauty and Georges Bizet 's opera Carmen (a work Tchaikovsky admired tremendously) for The Queen of Spades . Otherwise, it was to composers of the past that Tchaikovsky turned— Beethoven , whose music he respected; Mozart , whose music he loved; Glinka, whose opera A Life for

1680-530: A musical professional, with tools to help him thrive as a composer, and the in-depth exposure to European principles and musical forms gave him a sense that his art was not exclusively Russian or Western. This mindset became important in Tchaikovsky's reconciliation of Russian and European influences in his compositional style. He believed and attempted to show that both these aspects were "intertwined and mutually dependent". His efforts became both an inspiration and

1792-542: A musician in Russia and his unwillingness for Tchaikovsky to be treated likewise. Tchaikovsky was told to finish his course and then try for a post in the Ministry of Justice. On 10 June 1859, the 19-year-old Tchaikovsky graduated as a titular counselor, a low rung on the civil service ladder. Appointed to the Ministry of Justice, he became a junior assistant within six months and a senior assistant two months after that. He remained

1904-650: A new production of Eugene Onegin at the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in Saint Petersburg. By having the opera staged there and not at the Mariinsky Theatre , he served notice that Tchaikovsky's music was replacing Italian opera as the official imperial art. In addition, at the instigation of Ivan Vsevolozhsky , Director of the Imperial Theaters and a patron of the composer, Tchaikovsky was awarded

2016-505: A novel by the French-Vietnamese author Minh Tran Huy , La Double vie d'Anna Song ("The double life of Anna Song"). Anna Song, described as "the greatest pianist that no one has heard of", appears to record a huge discography despite illness and old age. Her husband, Paul Desroches, acts as producer for the recordings. It is later revealed in a magazine that the recordings are not the work of Song, but have been stolen by her husband from

2128-572: A physician's assistant in the army and later as city governor of Glazov in Vyatka. His great-grandfather, a Zaporozhian Cossack named Fyodor Chaika, served in the Russian military at the Battle of Poltava in 1709. Tchaikovsky's mother, Alexandra Andreyevna (née d'Assier), was the second of Ilya's three wives; his first wife died several years before Pyotr's birth. She was 18 years younger than her husband and

2240-543: A precursor to the Saint Petersburg Conservatory , which opened in 1862. Tchaikovsky enrolled at the Conservatory as part of its premiere class. He studied harmony and counterpoint with Zaremba and instrumentation and composition with Rubinstein. He was awarded a silver medal for his thesis, a cantata on Schiller's " Ode to Joy ". The Conservatory benefited Tchaikovsky in two ways. It transformed him into

2352-483: A recording under Hatto's name of Liszt's Mephisto Waltz . Specialised record review magazines and websites such as Gramophone , MusicWeb and Classics Today , as well as newspapers such as The Boston Globe , eventually discovered Hatto, reviewed the recordings (with mostly very favourable notices) and published interviews and appreciations of her career; in one case, she was described as "the greatest living pianist that almost no one has ever heard of." Those praising

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2464-475: A romantic love between the two. Tchaikovsky's sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to cholera , but there is an ongoing debate as to whether cholera was indeed the cause and whether the death was accidental or intentional. While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed. Some Russians did not feel it was sufficiently representative of native musical values and expressed suspicion that Europeans accepted

2576-580: A senior assistant for the rest of his three-year civil service career. Meanwhile, the Russian Musical Society (RMS) was founded in 1859 by the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (a German-born aunt of Tsar Alexander II ) and her protégé, pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein . Previous tsars and the aristocracy had focused almost exclusively on importing European talent. The aim of the RMS

2688-806: A small town in Vyatka Governorate during the Russian Empire in present-day Udmurtia near the banks of the Kama River . His father, Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, served as a lieutenant colonel and engineer in the Department of Mines and managed the Ironworks in Kamsko-Votkinsk . His grandfather, Pyotr Fedorovich Tchaikovsky, was born in the village of Nikolaevka, Yekaterinoslav Governorate , Russian Empire in present-day Mykolaivka , Ukraine, and served first as

2800-682: A smaller number opt for full-time solo careers. Mozart could be considered the first concert pianist, as he performed widely on the piano. Composers Beethoven and Clementi from the Classical era were also famed for their playing, as were, from the Romantic era , Liszt , Brahms , Chopin , Mendelssohn , Rachmaninoff , and Schumann . The Romantic era also saw the emergence of pianists better known for their performances than for composing, such as Clara Schumann and Hans von Bülow . Jazz pianists almost always perform with other musicians. Their playing

2912-479: A starting point for other Russian composers to build their own individual styles. Rubinstein was impressed by Tchaikovsky's musical talent on the whole and cited him as "a composer of genius" in his autobiography. He was less pleased with the more progressive tendencies of some of Tchaikovsky's student work. Nor did he change his opinion as Tchaikovsky's reputation grew. He and Zaremba clashed with Tchaikovsky when he submitted his First Symphony for performance by

3024-510: A tutor, bought an orchestrion , a form of barrel organ that could imitate elaborate orchestral effects, and encouraged his piano study for both aesthetic and practical reasons. However, they decided in 1850 to send Tchaikovsky to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg. They had both graduated from institutes in Saint Petersburg and the School of Jurisprudence, which mainly served

3136-574: A very doubtful sense of rhythm ... [t]he recording of the Bax was a tremendous labour." Still the record received a favourable review: "Joyce Hatto gives a highly commendable account of the demanding piano part," wrote Robert Layton ( Gramophone , February 1971). In 1973 Hatto gave the world premiere of two recently published Bourrée s by Frédéric Chopin in London's Queen Elizabeth Hall. In 1976 she stopped performing in public and moved to Royston, Hertfordshire . It

3248-500: A wide stylistic and emotional range, from light salon works to grand symphonies. Some of his works, such as the Variations on a Rococo Theme , employ a "Classical" form reminiscent of 18th-century composers such as Mozart (his favorite composer). Other compositions, such as his Little Russian symphony and his opera Vakula the Smith , flirt with musical practices more akin to those of

3360-517: Is attributed to cholera , caused by drinking unboiled water at a local restaurant . In the 1980s in Britain, however, there was academic speculation that he killed himself, either with poison or by contracting cholera intentionally; in the New Grove Dictionary of Music , Roland John Wiley wrote: "the polemics over Tchaikovsky's death have reached an impasse … . As for illness, problems of evidence offer little hope of satisfactory resolution:

3472-657: Is more free than that of classical pianists, and they create an air of spontaneity in their performances. They generally do not write down their compositions; improvisation is a significant part of their work. Well known jazz pianists include Bill Evans , Art Tatum , Duke Ellington , Thelonious Monk , Oscar Peterson , Bud Powell , McCoy Tyner , Chick Corea , Herbie Hancock , and Brad Mehldau . Popular pianists might work as live performers (concert, theatre, etc.) or session musicians . Arrangers most likely feel at home with synthesizers and other electronic keyboard instruments. Notable popular pianists include Liberace , who at

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3584-744: Is represented on the concerto recordings credited to Hatto and Köhler are now known to include Esa-Pekka Salonen , André Previn and Bernard Haitink , while the orchestras, claimed to be the National Philharmonic-Symphony and the Warsaw Philharmonia, are now known to include the Vienna Philharmonic , the Philharmonia , and the Royal Philharmonic . Barrington-Coupe initially denied any wrongdoing but subsequently admitted

3696-442: The 1812 Overture , would be "very loud and noisy, but I wrote it with no warm feeling of love, and therefore there will probably be no artistic merits in it". He also warned conductor Eduard Nápravník that "I shan't be at all surprised and offended if you find that it is in a style unsuitable for symphony concerts". Nevertheless, the overture became, for many, "the piece by Tchaikovsky they know best", particularly well-known for

3808-619: The AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (CHARM, based at Royal Holloway, University of London ) as a by-product of research on performances of Chopin Mazurkas . The editor of Gramophone , James Inverne , commissioned an intensive investigation of the Hatto CDs by audio experts including Andrew Rose. In February 2007 the magazine published a series of articles in

3920-585: The Bolshoi Theater in Moscow for performances of his opera Cherevichki . Within a year, he was in considerable demand throughout Europe and Russia. These appearances helped him overcome life-long stage fright and boosted his self-assurance. In 1888, Tchaikovsky led the premiere of his Fifth Symphony in Saint Petersburg, repeating the work a week later with the first performance of his tone poem Hamlet . Although critics proved hostile, with César Cui calling

4032-502: The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour nearing completion in Moscow in 1880, the 25th anniversary of the coronation of Alexander II in 1881, and the 1882 Moscow Arts and Industry Exhibition in the planning stage, Nikolai Rubinstein suggested that Tchaikovsky compose a grand commemorative piece. Tchaikovsky agreed and finished it within six weeks. He wrote to Nadezhda von Meck that this piece,

4144-520: The European Parliament for his "outstanding contribution to European cooperation and the promotion of common values". Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( / tʃ aɪ ˈ k ɒ f s k i / chy- KOF -skee ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period . He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of

4256-573: The First Piano Concerto , did not help matters. His popularity grew, however, as several first-rate artists became willing to perform his compositions. Hans von Bülow premiered the First Piano Concerto and championed other Tchaikovsky works both as pianist and conductor. Other artists included Adele aus der Ohe , Max Erdmannsdörfer , Eduard Nápravník and Sergei Taneyev . Another factor that helped Tchaikovsky's music become popular

4368-508: The Gramophone website on 15 February, the sources for some 20 of Hatto's Concert Artist CDs had been identified. On each of the concerto recordings published in Hatto's final years under her name the conductor's name was given as " René Köhler ", and Barrington-Coupe provided a detailed biography for "Köhler". The information given there has not withstood careful scrutiny. The conductors whose work

4480-595: The Joyce Hatto Identifications website . The release of Arnold Bax 's Symphonic Variations in E major (CACD90212 on the Concert Artist label) is a reissue of Hatto's 1970 recording with the Guildford Philharmonic conducted by Vernon Handley , originally issued on Barrington-Coupe's Revolution label. Hatto's authentic recordings never had a wide distribution and the above-mentioned work of Bax

4592-457: The Order of Saint Vladimir (fourth class), which included a title of hereditary nobility and a personal audience with the Tsar. This was seen as a seal of official approval which advanced Tchaikovsky's social standing and might have been cemented in the composer's mind by the success of his Orchestral Suite No. 3 at its January 1885 premiere in Saint Petersburg. In 1885, Alexander III requested

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4704-612: The Queen Elizabeth Hall and elsewhere; and concerts by "pupils of Joyce Hatto" in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She supplemented her earnings with work as a répétiteur for the London Philharmonic Choir under such conductors as Thomas Beecham and Victor de Sabata , and as a piano teacher, both privately and at schools including Crofton Grange, a girls' boarding school in Hertfordshire, where her pupils included

4816-583: The Russian Musical Society in Saint Petersburg. Rubinstein and Zaremba refused to consider the work unless substantial changes were made. Tchaikovsky complied but they still refused to perform the symphony. Tchaikovsky, distressed that he had been treated as though he were still their student, withdrew the symphony. It was given its first complete performance, minus the changes Rubinstein and Zaremba had requested, in Moscow in February 1868. Once Tchaikovsky graduated in 1865, Rubinstein's brother Nikolai offered him

4928-603: The Russian Musical Society , critic Vladimir Stasov and an 18-year-old pianist, Mily Balakirev , met and agreed upon a nationalist agenda for Russian music, one that would take the operas of Mikhail Glinka as a model and incorporate elements from folk music, reject traditional Western practices and use non-Western harmonic devices such as the whole tone and octatonic scales . They saw Western-style conservatories as unnecessary and antipathetic to fostering native talent. Balakirev, César Cui , Modest Mussorgsky , Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin became known as

5040-507: The Russian Symphony Concerts , devoted exclusively to the music of Russian composers. One included the first complete performance of his revised First Symphony; another featured the final version of Third Symphony of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov , with whose circle Tchaikovsky was already in touch. Rimsky-Korsakov, with Alexander Glazunov , Anatoly Lyadov and several other nationalistically-minded composers and musicians, had formed

5152-617: The Violin Concerto . He returned briefly to the Moscow Conservatory in the autumn of 1879. For the next few years, assured of a regular income from von Meck, he traveled incessantly throughout Europe and rural Russia, mainly alone, and avoided social contact whenever possible. During this time, Tchaikovsky's foreign reputation grew and a positive reassessment of his music also took place in Russia, thanks in part to Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky 's call for "universal unity" with

5264-534: The Wigmore Hall and other venues. Her early releases include: Concert pianist Contemporary classical pianists focus on dedicating their careers to performing, recording, teaching, researching, and continually adding new compositions to their repertoire. In contrast to their 19th-century counterparts, they typically do not engage in the composition or transcription of music. While some classical pianists may specialize in accompaniment and chamber music ,

5376-592: The moguchaya kuchka , translated into English as the "Mighty Handful" or "The Five" . Rubinstein criticized their emphasis on amateur efforts in musical composition; Balakirev and later Mussorgsky attacked Rubinstein for his musical conservatism and his belief in professional music training. Tchaikovsky and his fellow conservatory students were caught in the middle. While ambivalent about much of The Five's music, Tchaikovsky remained on friendly terms with most of its members. In 1869, he and Balakirev worked together on what became Tchaikovsky's first recognized masterpiece,

5488-499: The 19th century and certainly of any Russian composer of his time. It has also at times caused considerable confusion, from Soviet efforts to expunge all references to homosexuality and portray him as a heterosexual, to efforts at analysis by Western biographers. Biographers have generally agreed that Tchaikovsky was homosexual . He sought the company of other men in his circle for extended periods, "associating openly and establishing professional connections with them." His first love

5600-588: The CDs included the complete sonatas of Beethoven , Mozart and Prokofiev , concertos by Rachmaninoff , Tchaikovsky , Brahms and Mendelssohn and most of Chopin 's compositions, along with rarer works such as the complete Godowsky Studies on Chopin's Études . The recordings were released, along with piano recordings falsely attributed to Sergio Fiorentino , by the Concert Artist Recordings label run by Hatto's husband William Barrington-Coupe , who had

5712-594: The CDs. The favourable reviews and publicity generated substantial sales for the Concert Artist CDs: in 2006, one online retailer did £50,000 worth of business with Barrington-Coupe. Barrington-Coupe himself claimed to have sold 3,051 Hatto CDs in 2005 and 2006, and 5,500 from 2007 up to February 2009, and that he had made a "thumping great loss" on them. Hatto died from ovarian cancer and deep vein thrombosis at her home in Royston, Hertfordshire , on 29 June 2006. She

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5824-468: The Guildford Philharmonic on Hatto's 1970 recording of Sir Arnold Bax 's Symphonic Variations for her husband's Revolution label, said; "[a]s a solo pianist, she was absolutely marvellous. She had ten wonderful fingers and she could get round anything and also she was an extraordinarily charming person to work with, even if she could be very difficult." In another interview, after the 2007 hoax perpetrated by her husband had been revealed, he added; "[s]he had

5936-498: The Hay Maidens , in his opera The Voyevoda ). From 1867 to 1878, Tchaikovsky combined his professorial duties with music criticism while continuing to compose. This activity exposed him to a range of contemporary music and afforded him the opportunity to travel abroad. In his reviews, he praised Beethoven , considered Brahms overrated and, despite his admiration, took Schumann to task for poor orchestration. He appreciated

6048-476: The Imperial School of Jurisprudence to begin a seven-year course of studies. Tchaikovsky's early separation from his mother, despite the aforementioned alleged distant relationship, caused an emotional trauma that lasted the rest of his life and was intensified by her death from cholera in 1854 when he was 14. The loss of his mother also prompted Tchaikovsky to make his first serious attempt at composition,

6160-598: The Tsar made an indelible impression on him as a child and whose scoring he studied assiduously; and Adolphe Adam , whose ballet Giselle was a favorite of his from his student days and whose score he consulted while working on The Sleeping Beauty . Beethoven's string quartets may have influenced Tchaikovsky's attempts in that medium. Other composers whose work interested Tchaikovsky included Hector Berlioz , Felix Mendelssohn , Giacomo Meyerbeer , Gioachino Rossini , Giuseppe Verdi , Vincenzo Bellini , Carl Maria von Weber and Henry Litolff . Tchaikovsky displayed

6272-610: The West at the unveiling of the Pushkin Monument in Moscow in 1880. Before Dostoevsky's speech, Tchaikovsky's music had been considered "overly dependent on the West". As Dostoevsky's message spread throughout Russia, this stigma toward Tchaikovsky's music evaporated. The unprecedented acclaim for him even drew a cult following among the young intelligentsia of Saint Petersburg, including Alexandre Benois , Léon Bakst and Sergei Diaghilev . Two musical works from this period stand out. With

6384-464: The audio-restoration business Pristine Audio ] contacted me, and I uploaded three MP3s from the Hatto Liszt disc. Andrew's research confirmed what my ears suspected: at least two Liszt tracks were identical between BIS and Concert Artist, while at least one was not. An identification of the source of another recording, which had been in preparation for some months, was released the following day by

6496-462: The collapse of his 13-year association with the wealthy patroness Nadezhda von Meck . Tchaikovsky's homosexuality, which he kept private, has traditionally also been considered a major factor though some scholars have played down its importance. His dedication of his Sixth symphony to his nephew Vladimir "Bob" Davydov and his feelings expressed about Davydov in letters to others, especially following Davydov's suicide, have been cited as evidence for

6608-468: The composer's same-sex attraction, have been published, as have letters previously suppressed by Soviet censors in which Tchaikovsky openly writes of it. Such censorship has persisted in the Russian government, resulting in many officials, including the former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky , denying his homosexuality outright. Passages in Tchaikovsky's letters which reveal his homosexual desires have been censored in Russia. In one such passage he said of

6720-541: The copying from the Grante disc would only occur in 2007. In early 2006 doubts about various aspects of Hatto's recording output were expressed, both in the rec.music.classical.recordings Usenet group and, following the publication of a lengthy appreciation of Hatto in the March issue of Gramophone , by readers of that magazine. In particular, some found it hard to believe that a pianist who had not performed in public for decades and

6832-428: The country's national identity, an ambiguity mirrored in Tchaikovsky's career. Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. Contributory factors included his early separation from his mother for boarding school followed by his mother's early death, the death of his close friend and colleague Nikolai Rubinstein , his failed marriage with Antonina Miliukova , and

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6944-438: The enterprise and that he started out by pasting portions of other pianists' recordings into recordings made by Hatto to cover up her gasps of pain. Some critics however have cast doubt on this version of events, not least James Inverne in Gramophone . The discovery of plagiarised tracks on a Concert Artist CD released under the name of pianist Sergio Fiorentino raised further questions. Barrington-Coupe refused to help identify

7056-712: The fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet , a work which The Five wholeheartedly embraced. The group also welcomed his Second Symphony , later nicknamed the Little Russian . Despite their support, Tchaikovsky made considerable efforts to ensure his musical independence from the group as well as from the conservative faction at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. The infrequency of Tchaikovsky's musical successes, won with tremendous effort, exacerbated his lifelong sensitivity to criticism. Nikolai Rubinstein's private fits of rage critiquing his music, such as attacking

7168-444: The film was made by Left Bank Pictures. Hatto was portrayed by Maimie McCoy and Francesca Annis . Rory Kinnear and Alfred Molina played her husband. Barrington-Coupe was still alive at the time, but Wood stated in an interview with The Guardian that she did not consult him when she was writing the screenplay, although members of the research team for the project had met with him on a number of occasions. Hatto's story inspired

7280-549: The fraud in a letter to Robert von Bahr, the head of the Swedish record label BIS, which had originally issued some of the recordings plagiarised by Concert Artists. Bahr shared the contents of the letter with Gramophone , which reported the confession on its website on 26 February 2007. Barrington-Coupe claims that Hatto was unaware of the deception, that she would hear the final recordings believing that they were all her own work, that he acted out of love, that he made little money from

7392-435: The gap between Tchaikovsky and his peers. They regularly attended the opera and Tchaikovsky would improvise at the school's harmonium on themes he and his friends had sung during choir practice. "We were amused," Vladimir Gerard later remembered, "but not imbued with any expectations of his future glory". Tchaikovsky also continued his piano studies through Franz Becker, an instrument manufacturer who made occasional visits to

7504-425: The height of his fame was one of the highest paid entertainers in the world , as well as Elton John and Billy Joel , so nicknamed "The Piano Man", others include Richard Clayderman , who is known for his covers of popular tunes and the late Victor Borge , who performed as a comedian. A single listing of pianists in all genres would be impractical, given the multitude of musicians noted for their performances on

7616-409: The home market also helped boost the composer's popularity. During the late 1860s, Tchaikovsky began to compose operas. His first, The Voyevoda , based on a play by Alexander Ostrovsky , premiered in 1869. The composer became dissatisfied with it, however, and, having re-used parts of it in later works, destroyed the manuscript. Undina followed in 1870. Only excerpts were performed and it, too,

7728-432: The instrument. Below are links to lists of well-known or influential pianists divided by genres: Many important composers were also virtuoso pianists. The following is an incomplete list of such musicians. Some people, having received a solid piano training in their youth, decide not to continue their musical careers but choose nonmusical ones. As a result, there are prominent communities of amateur pianists all over

7840-476: The lesser nobility and thought that this education would prepare Tchaikovsky for a career as a civil servant. Regardless of talent, the only musical careers available in Russia at that time—except for the affluent aristocracy—were as a teacher in an academy or as an instrumentalist in one of the Imperial Theaters. Both were considered on the lowest rank of the social ladder, with individuals in them enjoying no more rights than peasants. Tchaikovsky's father's income

7952-408: The libretto himself, modeling his dramatic technique on that of Eugène Scribe . Cui wrote a "characteristically savage press attack" on the opera. Mussorgsky, writing to Vladimir Stasov , disapproved of the opera as pandering to the public. Nevertheless, The Oprichnik continues to be performed from time to time in Russia. The last of the early operas, Vakula the Smith (Op. 14), was composed in

8064-722: The liner notes for Concert Artist, as well as an obituary; and Ivan Davis , a professional pianist. In May 2005 the musicologist Marc-André Roberge reported on the Yahoo! Godowsky group that, in Hatto's version of the Chopin-Godowsky Studies on the Concert Artist label, a misreading of a chord was identical to one on the Carlo Grante recording (AIR-CD-9092, released 1993). However this coincidence did not prompt Roberge or others to investigate further at that time and verification of

8176-506: The most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker , the 1812 Overture , his First Piano Concerto , Violin Concerto , the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies , and the opera Eugene Onegin . Although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant as there

8288-451: The music for its Western elements. In an apparent reinforcement of the latter claim, some Europeans lauded Tchaikovsky for offering music more substantive than exoticism , and said he transcended the stereotypes of Russian classical music. Others dismissed Tchaikovsky's music as deficient because it did not stringently follow Western principles. Tchaikovsky was born on 7 May 1840 in Votkinsk ,

8400-462: The nickname 'Bob', would become very close to him. In 1844, the family hired Fanny Dürbach, a 22-year-old French governess. Four-and-a-half-year-old Tchaikovsky was initially thought too young to study alongside his older brother Nikolai and a niece of the family. His insistence convinced Dürbach otherwise. By the age of six, he had become fluent in French and German. Tchaikovsky also became attached to

8512-564: The novelist Rose Tremain . She was also active in the recording studios for several companies such as Saga Records in England, as well as others in Hamburg and Paris. Hatto's playing drew mixed notices from the critics. A critic for The Times wrote of a performance at Chelsea Town Hall in October 1953 that "Joyce Hatto grappled doggedly with too hasty tempi in Mozart 's D minor piano concerto and

8624-474: The opera Christmas Eve , based on the same story. Other works of this period include the Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello and orchestra, the Third and Fourth Symphonies , the ballet Swan Lake , and the opera Eugene Onegin . Tchaikovsky remained abroad for a year after the disintegration of his marriage. During this time, he completed Eugene Onegin , orchestrated his Fourth Symphony, and composed

8736-545: The post of Professor of Music Theory at the soon-to-open Moscow Conservatory . While the salary for his professorship was only 50 rubles a month, the offer itself boosted Tchaikovsky's morale and he accepted the post eagerly. He was further heartened by news of the first public performance of one of his works, his Characteristic Dances , conducted by Johann Strauss II at a concert in Pavlovsk Park on 11 September 1865 (Tchaikovsky later included this work, re-titled Dances of

8848-449: The potential for using Russian music in large-scale Western composition or for forming a composite style, and it caused personal antipathies that dented Tchaikovsky's self-confidence. Russian culture exhibited a split personality, with its native and adopted elements having drifted apart increasingly since the time of Peter the Great . That resulted in uncertainty among the intelligentsia about

8960-597: The premiere of his Sixth Symphony , the Pathétique , in Saint Petersburg. Nine days later, on 6 November, Tchaikovsky died there, aged 53. He was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery , near the graves of fellow-composers Alexander Borodin , Mikhail Glinka , and Modest Mussorgsky ; later, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Mily Balakirev were also buried nearby. Tchaikovsky's death

9072-424: The print edition and on the magazine's website showing that a number of the CDs ascribed to Hatto were recordings made by other pianists. In some cases these recordings had been digitally manipulated by methods such as speeding them up or slowing them, changing the equalisation or the recording balance. While some of these artists were well-known, the majority were not. Within a week of the initial story being posted on

9184-436: The recordings included Tom Deacon, a former record producer for Philips , who produced that label's Great Pianists of the 20th Century series and was so fooled he praised and derided the same recording, thinking that one was by Hatto and the other by Matsuzawa ; Bryce Morrison, a long-time reviewer for Gramophone ; Jed Distler, a reviewer for Gramophone and Classics Today ; Ateş Orga, a music critic who also wrote some of

9296-428: The school; however, the results, according to musicologist David Brown , were "negligible". In 1855, Tchaikovsky's father funded private lessons with Rudolph Kündinger and questioned him about a musical career for his son. While impressed with the boy's talent, Kündinger said he saw nothing to suggest a future composer or performer. He later admitted that his assessment was also based on his own negative experiences as

9408-511: The second half of 1874. The libretto, based on Gogol 's Christmas Eve , was to have been set to music by Alexander Serov . With Serov's death, the libretto was opened to a competition with a guarantee that the winning entry would be premiered by the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre . Tchaikovsky was declared the winner, but at the 1876 premiere, the opera enjoyed only a lukewarm reception. After Tchaikovsky's death, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote

9520-450: The sometimes sensitive relations among various members of the staff. He served as director of the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society during the 1889–1890 season. In this post, he invited many international celebrities to conduct, including Johannes Brahms , Antonín Dvořák and Jules Massenet . During this period, Tchaikovsky also began promoting Russian music as a conductor, In January 1887, he substituted, on short notice, at

9632-454: The sources of the recordings issued under Hatto's name, claiming that "whatever I do, it won't be enough". The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) announced an investigation. According to a BPI spokesman in 2007, if the allegations were true, it would have been "one of the most extraordinary cases of piracy the record industry had ever seen". Robert von Bahr of the BIS label said that he "had given

9744-501: The staging of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at its inaugural performance in Bayreuth (Germany), but not the music, calling Das Rheingold "unlikely nonsense, through which, from time to time, sparkle unusually beautiful and astonishing details". A recurring theme he addressed was the poor state of Russian opera . In 1856, while Tchaikovsky was still at the School of Jurisprudence and Anton Rubinstein lobbied aristocrats to form

9856-451: The state of diagnosis; the confusion of witnesses; disregard of long-term effects of smoking and alcohol. We do not know how Tchaikovsky died. We may never find out." Of Tchaikovsky's Western predecessors, Robert Schumann stands out as an influence in formal structure, harmonic practices, and piano writing, according to Brown and musicologist Roland John Wiley . Boris Asafyev comments that Schumann left his mark on Tchaikovsky not just as

9968-585: The symphony "routine" and "meretricious", both works were received with extreme enthusiasm by audiences and Tchaikovsky, undeterred, continued to conduct the symphony in Russia and Europe. Conducting brought him to the United States in 1891, where he led the New York Music Society's orchestra in his Festival Coronation March at the inaugural concert of Carnegie Hall . In November 1887, Tchaikovsky arrived at Saint Petersburg in time to hear several of

10080-408: The two sources. I reported my findings to Mr. Ventura, and cc'd Classicstoday.com editor David Hurwitz . I also cc'd Gramophone ' s editor James Inverne, plus three of my Gramophone colleagues who had written about Hatto. Then I wrote Mr. Barrington-Coupe. He quickly replied, claiming not to know what had happened, and to be as puzzled as I was. At James Inverne's suggestion, Andrew Rose [of

10192-706: The two. The degree to which the composer might have felt comfortable with his sexual desires has, however, remained open to debate. It is still unknown whether Tchaikovsky, according to musicologist and biographer David Brown , "felt tainted within himself, defiled by something from which he finally realized he could never escape" or whether, according to Alexander Poznansky , he experienced "no unbearable guilt" over his sexual desires and "eventually came to see his sexual peculiarities as an insurmountable and even natural part of his personality ... without experiencing any serious psychological damage". Relevant portions of his brother Modest's autobiography, where he tells of

10304-765: The use of cannon in the scores. On 23 March 1881, Nikolai Rubinstein died in Paris. That December, Tchaikovsky started work on his Piano Trio in A ;minor , "dedicated to the memory of a great artist". First performed privately at the Moscow Conservatory on the first anniversary of Rubinstein's death, the piece became extremely popular during the composer's lifetime; in November 1893, it would become Tchaikovsky's own elegy at memorial concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 1884, Tchaikovsky began to shed his unsociability and restlessness. That March, Emperor Alexander III conferred upon him

10416-530: The version credited to Hatto. He then contacted Jed Distler, a critic for Classics Today and Gramophone , who had praised many of the recordings ascribed to Hatto. Distler later wrote: When I received Brian Ventura's e-mail I decided to investigate further. After careful comparison of the actual Simon performances to the Hatto, it appeared to me that 10 out of 12 tracks showed remarkable similarity in terms of tempi, accents, dynamics, balances, etc. By contrast, Track Five, Feux Follets , sounded different between

10528-400: The widow of a railway magnate, who had begun contact with him not long before the marriage. As well as an important friend and emotional support, she became his patroness for the next 13 years, which allowed him to focus exclusively on composition. Although Tchaikovsky called her his "best friend", they agreed never to meet under any circumstances. On 16/28 October 1893, Tchaikovsky conducted

10640-435: The work of others. Another novel drawn from the Hatto case is Lynne Sharon Schwartz 's Two-Part Inventions (2012). Schwartz has stated that her novel is directly based on the story of Hatto and Barrington-Coupe. The following is a list of some of the performances attributed to Hatto whose sources have so far been discovered (sorted by Concert Artist catalogue number). More detailed track by track information can be found at

10752-669: The world that play at quite a high level and give concerts not to earn money but just for the love of music. The International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs , held annually in Paris , attracts about one thousand listeners each year and is broadcast on French radio. Jon Nakamatsu , the Gold Medal winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for professional pianists in Fort Worth, Texas (1997)

10864-512: The young woman; her affection for him was reportedly a counter to his mother's coldness and emotional distance from him, though others assert that the mother doted on her son. Dürbach saved much of Tchaikovsky's work from this period, including his earliest known compositions, and became a source of several childhood anecdotes. Tchaikovsky began piano lessons at age five. Within three years he had become as adept at reading sheet music as his teacher. Tchaikovsky's parents, initially supportive, hired

10976-455: Was a shift in attitude among Russian audiences. Whereas they had previously been satisfied with flashy virtuoso performances of technically demanding but musically lightweight works, they gradually began listening with increasing appreciation of the composition itself. Tchaikovsky's works were performed frequently, with few delays between their composition and first performances; the publication from 1867 onward of his songs and great piano music for

11088-425: Was also growing increasingly uncertain, so both parents may have wanted Tchaikovsky to become independent as soon as possible. As the minimum age for acceptance was 12 and Tchaikovsky was only 10 at the time, he was required to spend two years boarding at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence's preparatory school, 1,300 kilometres (800 mi) from his family. Once those two years had passed, Tchaikovsky transferred to

11200-423: Was at the moment of his victory technically an amateur: he never attended a music conservatory or majored in music, and worked as a high school German teacher at the time; it was only after the competition that he started pursuing a career as a classical pianist. The German pianist Davide Martello is known for traveling around conflict zones to play his moving piano. Martello has previously been recognized by

11312-502: Was born in St John's Wood , London. Her father was an antique dealer and piano enthusiast. As a promising young professional, she played at a large number of concerts in London, and throughout Britain and Europe, beginning in the 1950s. There were concertos in which she was accompanied by the Boyd Neel , Haydn and London Symphony Orchestras, and many others; solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall ,

11424-585: Was cremated in Cambridge on 11 July 2006. When Brian Ventura, a financial analyst from Mount Vernon, New York , put the recording of Liszt 's Transcendental Études credited to Hatto into his computer, the Gracenote database used by the iTunes software identified the disc as being one made by László Simon , not Joyce Hatto. On checking online samples of the Simon recording Ventura found it to be remarkably similar to

11536-434: Was destroyed. Between these projects, Tchaikovsky started to compose an opera called Mandragora , to a libretto by Sergei Rachinskii; the only music he completed was a short chorus of Flowers and Insects. The first Tchaikovsky opera to survive intact, The Oprichnik , premiered in 1874. During its composition, he lost Ostrovsky's part-finished libretto. Tchaikovsky, too embarrassed to ask for another copy, decided to write

11648-459: Was impeded from conveying significant feelings towards the work, especially in quick figuration." Trevor Harvey wrote of her Saga recording of Rachmaninoff 's Piano Concerto No. 2 "one wonders ... whether her technique is really on top of the difficulties of this music ... She shows a musical sense of give and take with the orchestra but it remains a small, rather pallid performance" ( The Gramophone , August 1961). Vernon Handley , who conducted

11760-421: Was later claimed that she already had cancer at the time. However, the consultant radiologist who saw her every six weeks for the last eight years of her life stated that she was first treated for ovarian cancer in 1992, fourteen years before her death, and had had no previous history of the disease. In Hatto's last years more than 100 recordings falsely attributed to her appeared. The repertoire represented on

11872-475: Was little opportunity for a musical career in Russia at the time and no system of public music education. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory , from which he graduated in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching that Tchaikovsky received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalist movement embodied by the Russian composers of The Five with whom his professional relationship

11984-412: Was mixed . Tchaikovsky's training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From that reconciliation, he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style. The principles that governed melody, harmony, and other fundamentals of Russian music diverged from those that governed Western European music, which seemed to defeat

12096-482: Was of French and German ethnicity through her paternal side. Both Ilya and Alexandra were trained in the arts, including music. Of his six siblings, Tchaikovsky was close to his sister Alexandra and twin brothers Anatoly and Modest . Alexandra's marriage to Lev Davydov would produce seven children and lend Tchaikovsky the only real family life he would know as an adult, especially during his years of wandering. One of those children, Vladimir Davydov , who went by

12208-453: Was reportedly Sergey Kireyev, a younger fellow student at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence. According to Modest Tchaikovsky , this was Pyotr Ilyich's "strongest, longest and purest love". Tchaikovsky's dedication of his Sixth symphony to his nephew Vladimir "Bob" Davydov (21 at the time) and his feelings expressed about Davydov in letters to others, especially following Davydov's suicide, has been cited as evidence for romantic love between

12320-568: Was said to be fighting cancer should produce in her old age a large number of recordings, all apparently of high quality. It also proved difficult to confirm any of the details of the recordings made with orchestra, including even the existence of René Köhler , the conductor credited. The doubters were vigorously countered, most publicly by critic Jeremy Nicholas who in the July 2006 issue of Gramophone , challenged unnamed sceptics to substantiate their accusations by providing evidence that would "stand up in

12432-435: Was the last to appear on LP in 1970. In the 1980s, more works were released on cassette tapes (Grieg Piano Concerto and a number of Liszt compositions: the two Piano Concerti, Rigoletto paraphrase, Miserere del Trovatore paraphrase, Totentanz solo piano version, Seven Hungarian Historical Portraits ). The solo piano repertoire of these releases shows works Hatto played also at that time in London on various occasions at

12544-534: Was to fulfill Alexander II's wish to foster native talent. It hosted a regular season of public concerts (previously held only during the six weeks of Lent when the Imperial Theaters were closed) and provided basic professional training in music. In 1861, Tchaikovsky attended RMS classes in music theory taught by Nikolai Zaremba at the Mikhailovsky Palace (now the Russian Museum ). These classes were

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