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Great Pretenders
frauds that rocked the classical music world
By Joe Sugarman
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4 O v ertur e |
www. bsomusic .org
Revelations that Mamoru Samuragochi, a.k.a. the “Japanese Beethoven,” had a ghostwriter
pen his compositions over the past 18 years have been all over the news. (It was also revealed
that the composer isn’t really deaf!) But Samuragochi is far from the first fraud to rock the
classical music world. Here are more that made the headlines.
Hatto’s Revenge
claimed dead composers—from Brahms to Bach
The British pianist Joyce Hatto became a critics’
to Liszt—dictated entire compositions to her.
darling toward the end of her life when a series
“I seemed to lose control of my hands; it was as
of recordings were released by her record
though someone were guiding them,’” she said of
company-owning husband, William Barringtonthe first time she received a piece of music from
Coupe. “The greatest living pianist that almost
Liszt, according to her 2001 obituary in The New
no one has ever heard of,” opined the Boston
York Times. The obit also told of how she’d
Globe, following the lead of dozens of
describe the composers in humorous
other publications. But a year after Hatto’s
detail, noting about Beethoven that he
death in 2006, it was revealed
was no longer deaf and had lost
that her husband had digitally
“that crabby look.”
Brown actually gained
manipulated and inserted
other artists’ performances
some credibility in the
into his wife’s recordings,
1960s, performing at New
claiming they were her
York’s Town Hall and on
own. Barrington-Coupe
“The Tonight Show” with
claimed that Hatto was
Johnny Carson. Even
unaware of the decepBritish composer Richard
tion, and that he had done
Rodney Bennett seemed
convinced of her psychic
it out of love for his wife,
M a moru S a m u r ag o c h i
powers. He said that
who was dying of cancer
when he couldn’t comand had been spurned
plete one of his compositions, he asked Brown,
by the classical musical establishment earlier in
her career. Others believe Hatto was in on the
who passed along a recommendation from
scheme the entire time. A BBC biopic called
Debussy—which worked. “If she is a fake,
“Loving Miss Hatto” was screened on the BBC in
she is a brilliant one,” he said in an interview
2012—and was very well received.
in Time magazine.
Brown died in 2001—and neither she, nor
A Musical Medium
Liszt, have been heard from since.
Rosemary Brown was another famous English
pianist—only she did perform her own material.
To read more about these classical music frauds, visit
Well, sort of. Brown was a psychic medium, who
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