All WAS what it seemed in this picture; but was it always?

All WAS what it seemed in this picture; but was it always?

The above pictures are (almost certainly) of the pianist Sergio Fiorentino playing Bach. I say “almost certainly” because you are never quite sure(even as far back as the early 60s) with the recorded productions of William Barrington-Coupe, Joyce Hatto’s husband!I won’t repeat the story , which can be found all over the web; but will give some additional historical information and some references to my collection of odd, pseudonymously recorded LPs of this era(some produced by BC) and to my (probably!) echt Joyce Hatto early vinyl recordings(pictures of which I will produce when I can actually find the LPs!)

1. I own a number of recordings which are almost certainly(again!)by the REAL Joyce Hatto: these include: Gershwin Piano Concerto(uploaded onto u-tube by someone else), “Music from the Films” and Rachmaninov Piano concerto 2. Plus, what is thought to be the last recording the real Joyce made, in 1971, Bax:”Symphonic Variations”(this last is 100% genuine having been testified to by the late Vernon Handley who conducted the orchestra for the recording); plus 2/3 others.I find her(likely to be real)recordings good, not outstanding but proficient and there is a lovely, sensitive recording on U-Tube of a Rachmaninov prelude, which was an add-on to her Rachmaninov 2 recording for Saga) But:

2. This is part of a bigger picture:From about 1960, BC was involved in working for and producing a number of bargain basement labels and their products(usually on poor quality vinyl) for a new cheap range of LPs, selling for 10 shillings. Starting with working for Saga records(which had its own even cheaper Fidelity label and morphed into ARC, Allied Records, prefixes XID/STXID. FDY/STFDY), he went on to create his own companies, in, as far as I can tell,this order (but again the waters are murky and there may be some overlaps):

Delta(prefixes DEL and SDEL;TQD and STQD;with its sister cheap label Fidelio(ATL, mono only I think)

Summit(the above picture has a Fidelio record number prefix but is labelled Summit and refers to “Combined Sales Ltd”!), prefix LSU!

Some were labelled, proudly, “A Production of W.H.Barrington-Coupe ” on the back of the sleeve!

Concert Artist(also Concert Artist/Fidelio), which continued till the fraud story broke, in 2007.CD prefix CACD.

Revolution records, which proudly issued the Bax referred to, as its 001, in 1971, followed by a number of quite beautifully produced releases before it too became defunct or metamorphosed, for whatever reason

There was also a particuarly intransigently undetectable period when BC made recordings on cassette(the Hatto recordings of this period have never been proved as genuine or not, as far as I am aware, but are more or less unobtainable now).

Whilst some of the releases from these various entities recorded REAL, not pseudonymicised artists(Saga recorded Janet Baker very early in her career; Delta the Aeolian Quartet, for example), many of their orchestral “productions” were of (usually) behind-the-Iron-Curtain recordings of classical works with sometimes invented orchestra names(Danzig Philharmonic, which HAD been a bona fide orchestra but had ceased to exist BEFORE the record’s issuance!; the Zurich Municipal Orchestra). A lot of this was done for contractual reasons, on the fringe of legality, as many of the conductors would have had contracts with other labels.Solo artists got fake names: Sondra Bianca, Paul Procopolis(some of whose recordings are now claimed to be by the {genuine name} Sergio Fiorentino, but who knows?!); and then BC started to go over-the-top and used names like “Wilhelm Havagesse”{sic!} and “Helda Wobbler”,that well known soprano with a terrible vibrato in her voice{oh it was Joan Sutherland at the end of her careeer: ONLY JOKING!}. He began , in other words, to satirise the whole pseudonymizing process.

The (in)famous Paul Procopolis(??Sergio Fiorentino), who appeared often and even "recorded" "The Best Loved Piano Pieces Ever" type album

The (in)famous Paul Procopolis(??Sergio Fiorentino), who appeared often and even “recorded” “The Best Loved Piano Pieces Ever” type album

So it always surprises me that people didnt see the c. 2002 Hatto scam as coming(BC had also been in prison for tax fraud)

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What is it that is so fascinating, and even uncanny,about these 1960s bargain label recordings, pseudonymous names or not, Joyce Hatto(obviously adding a further layer of uncanniness, in the light of events yet, at that stage, to unfold)or not?I have happened upon two or three other bargainvinylomanaics/philes, so I am not alone(as I am not in my love of obscure railway halts!Dyfi junction has its own twitter feed!); and there was even a radio 4 programme about them, some few years ago!

Well, I became interested in classical music aged 12 and these cheap labels were an affordable way of buying the classics and the byeways of the recorded repertoire(Turnabout was another fascinating label worth a whole posting, with pictures of their camp, extravagant cover designs!). nothing uncanny/odd about that; but the labels I have talked about-Saga, Fidelio, etc- were available at two DECIDEDLY spectral outlets: WH Smith kiosks in two extremely desuetudinous railway stations in Liverpool, which haunted my teenage years(UNconsciously) and haunt me, consciously,in my early 50s, now: Liverpool Central old high level station, (the site of which is to be built on by Liverpool Central Village, uncannily, again, next to Lewis’s, with which it is to be part of the same development), closed in 1972; and Liverpool Exchange station, closed 1977(which has the frontage still extant, behind which is NOTHING, an opening to a ghostly world of a carpark, flanked with the original walls of the station). Both were haunting in their own ways: Exchange had , even by 1977, a closed down hotel as its blackened frontage and quirky little shops,( at one of which I got my spectacles):think Manchester Victoria now; it was in that kind of semi -ruined condition. Central high level was something else, however: a hellhole of a deserted large trainshed, with 2 railway lines running out of it(google it!). The two kiosks, where I bought some of these records, certainly remained open till near the end of the lives of their respective carapaces of stations. So, hence the spectral/ uncanny architecture association of the records; as well as the attraction of the obscure for the sake of it, a sort of benjaminesque concern for the (defunct) byeways of capitalism, and for the underdogs(of the music industry). There was an uncanniness in some of the recordings too: at one level risible, almost camp(so bad they were good; but really just kitsch or plain bad):I remember two “recordings” in especial: Schubert 9 on Saga’s supercheap Fidelity label(with a probably pseudonymous conductor), sounding as if recorded in a cave; Beethoven “Eroica”, similarly of the bath-tub variety of production, again probably under alias performers, this time on Woolworth’s rival cheap label, Allegro; there was even one label recorded, as late as probably the 70s, which recorded on BREAKABLE material!-Gala. Add to this the hauntology of the fact that, NOW, these are remnants of an ACTUAL mainly defunct ideology, command economy Communism(recordings often sourced from, eg former DDR orchestras)- and a whole constellation of the spectral and uncanny reveals itself, bit by bit.

The psychology of the whole Hatto/BC affair is itself uncanny: did BC do all this faking out of love for his wife, ie that she had never attained fame as a concert pianist, or was there (also?)an element of the wide-boy in there; there is the legendary association with Joe Meek(BC produced “Telstar”); and, generally, all the imaginariness, dark fairytale world of the machinations of the 60s “Barry” and the later incarnation of himself in the 2000s.A sort of psycho-social-historico spectral geography of vinyl, as a mirror of a twisted personal psychologies. Anyway, make up your own mind…I leave you(till we come to “Turnabout”!) with pictures of my only fake Hatto!

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