These records were originally issued separately
and my reviews of all five are to be found on the site. I am
returning to them now because I realize the existence of a
possible injustice. Since I wrote the reviews the discs have been
re-edited and re-mastered - "Post Recording Production" is now
credited to Roger Chatterton. Furthermore, each disc contains at
least one part newly recorded during 2005. We are not told which -
whole movements? a passage here and there? - and after a few attempts
to identify them I decided it would
be impertinent to pursue such detective
work any further. Having just heard
the cycle through again while reviewing
the reissued cycle by Lili Kraus, and
having compared the beginnings of several
movements in the original issues, I
can report that Joyce Hatto did not
radically rethink any movements during
her last year. It was and remains a
superb set.
As regards the re-mastering,
the first two discs have acquired a
softer sound with more reverberation
surrounding it. I'm not sure that I
don't prefer the original brighter sound,
but this is a matter for personal taste
and may also be affected by your equipment
and the acoustic of your listening-room.
For some reason the remaining discs
sound pretty well as before. In short,
for a cycle consistently illuminated
by an inner spirituality, it would be
hard to imagine better.
My second reason for
returning to these performances is that
my detailed reviews led to some correspondence
with the pianist which seems to me too
valuable to keep to myself, even though
Joyce Hatto has touched on some of the
same subjects in public interviews.
Principal among these was the "Memorandum
to Christopher Howell" dated 11
May 2004:
Dear Mr. Howell,
I have been reading
your notes for my Mozart endeavours.
It so refreshing to read a review of
one's work in which the reviewer has
the interest to take time, patience
and a little research to make comments
and justify them. [...] I donī't very often
write to music critics but here I am
again with you. I excuse myself because
in some of your comments you seem to
be inviting me to do so!
I have always found
that playing Mozart is a minefield when
one departs at all from the "accepted"
urtext editions. However, in a longish
life, I have had the opportunity of
seeing various manuscripts and copies
of early editions which do have interesting
variants. I suppose that over time some
small variants I have retained and others,
through 'admonishment' and a change
of personal taste, I have disowned.
When I studied with Zbigniew Drzewiecki
in Warsaw he gave me some photocopies
(photo fax did not exist then) of some
early printed editions in which Mozart
had written some variants for the daughter
of Christian Cannabich. I understand
that Artaria acquired these but did
not bother to make the expenditure to
prepare new plates after Mozart died.
I loaned these photocopies several years
ago to a well known and loved international
pianist [...] who departed this world a few years back. It would
appear that he departed with my photocopies as they could not be
found by his widow among his papers. [...]
The question of
"Appoggiaturas" and "Acciaccaturas"
is another matter. I have never been
a slave to ornamentation and decoration.
My rule of thumb is simply to sing it
and do what seems natural. After all,
Mozart did say that you found his tempo
by singing it. So many pianists ruin
a perfectly singable and beautiful melodic
line by simply sticking on ornaments
as if with elastoplast. [...] However, I must say that you are
absolutely right with regard to the theme of K.331! I have
agonised and spent many sleepless hours wondering how that came to
pass. I have no excuse, I played it and I now have to live with it
- that is the
problem with recording [I understand a wrong take was used;
there need be no reservations about the performance as it now
stands - CH]. On other
points too I can accept your observations
as being completely valid and I admit
that sometimes I am a little perverse
in preferring to differ!
As you are aware, I did have the opportunity
of playing many of these sonatas to Clara Haskil. She did not
teach the piano as such but listened! She was not adverse to
making textual changes in her performances and these mostly escape
comment as one is swept up by the sheer musicality of playing. One
comment that she did make to me (when she liked some Bach that I
had played) and one that I have always passed on to my students.
"There is no such thing as classical and romantic - all the
greatest music has depth of emotion - if you can't find it then
simply you are not a musician."
So, thank you again
for your comments, addressed to me as
well your general readers, and thank
you for the trouble that you have taken
to balance your review. I have always
had a regard for Alicia de Larrocha
and I was upset that her Mozart playing
was dismissed by some critics who should
have known better and treated her performances
with more thought and care. Her musical
history and dedication deserves more
discerning comment.
With regards and
kind thoughts,
Sincerely,
Joyce Hatto
A little later, with regard to my feeling that
some of the finales might be a notch too slow, she concluded: "I
am sending you the Liszt Transcendental Etudes - I don't
think that you will find me gumming
up the motorway in those". I didn't,
but by a mistake of the office boy the
copy intended for me, on which Joyce
Hatto had jocularly scrawled "that
old slowcoach", was sent to my
colleague Jonathan Woolf. His review
of the disc does not mention his reaction
to the phrase!
Very near the end, on 8 May 2006, Joyce Hatto
wrote to me on some other matters, even apologising (!!) for the
fact that she had been "behind with all correspondence of late due
to very necessary hospital treatment" - this being a casual
reference to the terminal cancer she
had been fighting for so many years.
In this letter she mentioned that
Critics, over the years, have never approved
of my Mozart. "Tame", "Ordinary", "Run of the Mill",
"Stylistically arguable", "Chopinesque", "Lisztian" - the latter meant,
I feel, to be particularly insulting.
However, I have always rather liked
that comment as I do think that Mozart
should sparkle. It was obviously just
too exciting for that jaded palette.
This latter comment
raises the question that Joyce Hatto
may have been more of a firebrand in
Mozart in her younger days. I can only
repeat my recommendation for a cycle
which stands out for its spiritual qualities.
Listening to it again as a comparison
with Lili Kraus's more extrovert, intermittently
magnificent, manner, has only confirmed
that point.
Christopher Howell
Reviews of individual
issues
Volume
1
Volume
2
Volume
3
Volume
4
Volume
5
see also review
of the Lili Kraus cycle
Joyce Hatto (piano) 
