The Hatto Hoax is absolutely fascinating.  When the original surge of
attention for Hatto first appeared in the British mags, I thought the
story seemed a bit fishy, but never suspected it could be anything like
this fraud on a grand scale.

Larry Sherwood is skeptical about the motive being monetary, but I
believe Barrington-Coupe was running ads in each issue of Gramophone for
quite a stretch (SURELY that had nothing to do with the Hatto boomlet
in the mag).  Unit cost to make CDs, even in smallish quantity, is so
small these days that they're almost pure profit (especially when the
performances themselves are kindly provided by Yefim Bronfman, Minoru
Nojima, et al.  at no charge!).  Perhaps he started out small selling
genuine recordings made by Hatto & saw that he could really clean up if
only he had more material.

Dave Lampson wrote:

"The real scandal, as far as I'm concerned, is with the reviewers and
their publishers."

Exactly.  It will be very interesting to see whether the British record
review press, Gramophone particularly, goes all out to explore this story
-- their very own "Hattogate" -- or, quietly let it die as quickly as
possible, embarassed by their gullibility, cupidity and incompetence.
Heads ought to roll, but I doubt they will.

Art Scott
Livermore, Cal.