Concert Artist/Fidelio Recordings was a British

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

record label, situated in Royston, Hertfordshire, England, and owned and operated by William Barrington-Coupe. It is best known for selling unauthorized copies of commercial recordings by other artists as the work of pianists

Sergio Fiorentino Sergio Fiorentino (22 December 1927 – 22 August 1998) was a 20th-century Italian classical pianist whose sporadic performing career spanned five decades. There is quite a bit of footage of his playing that survives, in addition to audio record ...

and Barrington-Coupe's wife, Joyce Hatto. Barrington-Coupe's long history in the music world includes time with Saga Films and Records and pop record producer Joe Meek. The company issued recordings from 1955 until 2007.

Fraudulent recordings

The Concert Artist label received increased attention in its final years as it released over 100 CDs of highly acclaimed piano recordings attributed to Joyce Hatto. After a great deal of speculation, discussion and allegations, on 26 February 2007 Barrington-Coupe admitted fraud and plagiarism regarding his recently deceased wife's recent recordings. Joyce Hatto CDs released by Concert Artist are in fact plagiarised commercial recordings by other pianists on different labels. Some light editing and processing had been made to the Concert Artist releases in an effort to disguise the original recordings origin. Some of the Concert Artist recordings attributed to Sergio Fiorentino have also been positively identified as previously released commercial recordings by other pianists. The Concert Artist release of Chopin's Mazurkas attributed to

Alfred Cortot Alfred Denis Cortot (; 26 September 187715 June 1962) was a French pianist, conductor, and teacher who was one of the most renowned classical musicians of the 20th century. A pianist of massive repertory, he was especially valued for his poeti ...

has been the subject of continuing debate since before the "Hatto hoax". Subsequent analyses of the Cortot recordings have concluded that there are "ample grounds for suspicion" that the recordings are not authentic, but the actual source recording has never been identified.

Featured artists

Wilhelm Backhaus, William Bennett, Alexander Brailowsky, Wolfgang Böhm,

Ferruccio Busoni Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary ...

, Philip Challis, Leonard Cassini,

, Adrian Creighton,

Aeolian String Quartet The Aeolian Quartet was a highly reputed string quartet based in London, England, with a long international touring history and presence, an important recording and broadcasting profile. It was the successor of the pre-War Stratton Quartet. The qua ...

, John Denman,

Arthur Dennington Arthur Dennington (12 August 1904 – 16 May 1988) was a British conductor and composer. Life and career Arthur Dennington was born in London. He studied music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the King's College London.Townend, P ...

, Ernst von Dohnányi,

D’Oyly Carte Opera Company The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company is a professional British light opera company that, from the 1870s until 1982, staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere. The ...

, English National Opera Orchestra, Sir

Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

, Paula Fan,

Albert Ferber Albert Ferber (29 March 191111 January 1987) was a Swiss pianist who had an international performing career that spanned four decades and took him across the world. Training Albert Ferber was a classical pianist and teacher. He was born in Lucer ...

, Paul Freeman, Walter Gieseking, Grigory Ginsburg, Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley,

Beatrice Harrison Beatrice Harrison (9 December 1892 – 10 March 1965) was a British cellist active in the first half of the 20th century. She gave first performances of several important English works, especially those of Frederick Delius, and made the first or ...

, Sir Hamilton Harty, Joyce Hatto, Henry Holst, Vladimir Horowitz, Edward Kilenyi, René Köhler (long suspected by many to be a fictitious conductor used for the misattributed Hatto recordings and now proven to be),

London Mozart Ensemble London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...

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Alan Loveday Alan Raymond Loveday (29 February 1928 – 12 April 2016) was a New Zealand violinist. A child prodigy, he became leader of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in Londo ...

Witold Malcuzynski Witold may refer to: *Vytautas the Great (ca. 1350–1430), ruler of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania *Witold (given name) Witold is a masculine Polish given name. This name derives from the Lithuanian “Vytautas” composed of two elements: “vyt ...

, Mark Manning, Ozan Marsh, Frank Merrick,

Benno Moiseiwitsch Benno Moiseiwitsch CBE (22 February 18909 April 1963) was a Russian-born British pianist. Biography Moiseiwitsch was born to Jewish parents in Odessa, Russian Empire (today part of Ukraine), and began his studies at age seven with Dmitry Klimo ...

Ignace Jan Paderewski Ignacy Jan Paderewski (; – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer who became a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the new nation's Prime Minister and foreign minister during which he signed the Treaty of Versaill ...

Sergei Rachmaninov Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of ...

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, Artur Rubinstein, Artur Schnabel, Albert Sammons, Oda Slobodskaya, Siegfried Schubert-Weber, Lionel Tertis, Rosemary Tuck, Nicholas Zumbro

References

British record labels Classical music record labels Record labels established in 1952 Musical hoaxes {{UK-record-label-stub

Fraudulent recordings

Featured artists

See also

References