Twenty-five years ago, during a lunchtime concert in Amsterdam, top pianist Maria João Pires was caught off guard, expecting to play a different Mozart concerto than the one she'd been practicing.
In the video, you see that conductor Riccardo Chailly started the orchestral introduction to Mozart's Piano Concerto No.20, not the piece Pires had prepared for. Realizing the mix-up, Pires experienced a moment of shock but, with Chailly's encouragement, managed to remember how to play the correct concerto from her memory and performed it flawlessly.
Classic FM has a new article about the famous incident.
"She was shocked because she was expecting us to play another concerto," Chailly recounted afterwards. "So when I started the first bar of the D minor concerto, she kind of jumped and panicked like like like an electric shock."
While the orchestra continued the introduction passage, the conductor and soloist exchanged some words while the strings and woodwind played. Pires explained to Chailly that she must have misread the schedule and was expecting a different piece. However, as the moment of the piano entry neared, she told him she would try to quickly recall the Mozart and continue the performance.
"The miracle is that she has such a memory, that she could within a minute switch to a new concerto without making one mistake," Chailly said.
From horror show to triumph! This is the moment when pianist Maria Joao Pires realises – as the orchestra starts to play – that she has learned the wrong piece for a concert. With no sheet music to fall back on, she has to keep calm and carry on. She is AMAZING. As is conductor… pic.twitter.com/BR9TJqhLMs
— Joanna Gosling (@joannagtweets) February 25, 2024
See also: Watch this interview with one-handed concert pianist, Nicholas McCarthy
