René Köhler was a spurious conductor invented by

William Barrington-Coupe William H. Barrington-Coupe (born William Halford Barrington Coupe, 1931 – 19 October 2014 and known as Barry) was a British record producer and music impresario. Married in 1956 to concert pianist Joyce Hatto, he was jailed for a year in 1966 ...

as part of a fraud scheme in which he passed off numerous plagiarised copyrighted

sound recordings Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, Mechanical system, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of ...

of several classical pianists as the work of his wife,

Joyce Hatto 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 ...

False biography

William Barrington-Coupe provided a fictional biography of the non-existent Köhler (allegedly born in 1926 and dying in 2002) to

Ateş Orga Ateş () is a Turkish word meaning "fire", and may refer to: Given name * Ateş Çınar (born 1986), Turkish yacht racer Surname * Ceyda Ateş (born 1988), Turkish actress * Levent Ateş (born 1991), Turkish middle-distance runner * Necati Ate� ...

in which he claimed that Köhler had been a piano pupil of

Raoul Koczalski Raoul Armand Jerzy (von) Koczalski (3 January 1884 – 24 November 1948) was a Polish pianist and composer. He also used the pseudonym Georg Armand(o) Koczalski. Career Born in Warsaw, Koczalski was taught first by his mother, then by Julian Gad ...

. He was said to have been unable to study at the Polish Conservatoire in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

because of his Jewish faith. Instead he was said to have taken private lessons with

Stanisław Spinalski Stanislav and variants may refer to: People *Stanislav (given name), a Slavic given name with many spelling variations (Stanislaus, Stanislas, Stanisław, etc.) Places * Stanislav, a coastal village in Kherson, Ukraine * Stanislaus County, Cali ...

. In 1940, according to the biography provided by Barrington-Coupe, his left hand was crushed irreparably by a young German officer. According to Barrington-Coupe, he survived the Warsaw Ghetto but in the summer of 1942 was deported to

Treblinka Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...

concentration camp which he survived one of fewer than a hundred to do so. From 1945 to 1970, Barrington-Coupe claimed, Köhler was a prisoner in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Role in Joyce Hatto affair

Barrington-Coupe issued several recordings of piano music which, he claimed, featured Hatto as the pianist. It is now known that these recordings actually feature the published commercial recordings of other pianists, in some cases digitally manipulated. For those recordings that featured an

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

l accompaniment, Barrington-Coupe credited Köhler as the conductor, allegedly directing the spurious "National Philharmonic-Symphony" and "Warsaw Philharmonia" orchestras. There is no reason to believe that any such person existed. Details of the biography resemble that of the conductor and composer Stanisław Skrowaczewski, who was born in Poland, had originally trained and performed as a pianist, but suffered from a hand injury during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

which left him unable to play.Biography of Stanisław Skrowaczewski on the Albany Records website
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kohler, Rene Fictional Holocaust survivors Fictional Jews Fictional musicians Nonexistent people used in hoaxes