Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Performer's nightmare - Studied the wrong concerto

This is Maria Joao Pires with Ricardo Chailly during a lunchtime concert in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, quite a few years ago. When the orchestra begins to play, she realizes she has studied the wrong Mozart concerto. I can't begin to imagine how she must have felt.

So why post this? To relive her pain? She's a fantastic pianist. Some things best forgotten. Sorry, that's how I feel. The creater of this Youtube and types like this IMO are sadistic.

I don't find it sadistic at all. It shows the conductor doing a magnificent job of calming her down, and she is an absolute pro in the situation. I think it is triumphant, not sadistic.

Sadistic? Wow. I think it's a celebration of the power of the human mind. I cannot watch it without getting tears in my eyes when she starts to play. I'm pretty sure I remember that she played the whole concerto in the end, and that it was one of the most intense performances ever.

I agree and the conductor expressed awe that she could switch to another concerto ‘in less than a minute without making a mistake’. I would be very doubtful that many pianists could do that.

The ultimate example of ‘keep going’ no matter what happens.

+1

Stormbringer

She was lucky that she played that concerto many times before and she has great memory, otherwise i wonder what would have happened. Just wonder how they managed to mess up the concerto choice in the first place.

I can't see how anyone can find this sadistic at all. The video makes her look like she has superpowers. Her Mozart is always phenomenal.

I don't know much about this topic at all but do they practice for theses type of concerts for years? I was wondering does that mean she studied the wrong pieces for years? The pieces she did play were they still the correct ones or did she use some other repertoire that suited the performance?

Regardless that's amazing that she didn't just get up an run away. I think many would have buckled under that pressure for sure.

I also welled up when she started to play... I think this is astonishing!

Concert pianists always have several concertos (and solo pieces) under their belt that they can play at any time with minimal rehearsal. Mozart pianists like Pires will almost certainly have a few of their favorite Mozart concertos that they have memorized a long time ago (probably in their teens), which they play regularly.

I wonder why there apparently wasn't a rehearsal for this performance.

No big deal really. She’s played it for decades.

They'll have to start doing what they do for leg amputations--scrawling disclaimers on the pianist's hand''

"Playing Brahms 1st, not the #2."

She wouldn't have been upset if it was no big deal. Even if she has played it frequently and for a long time, any pianist would want to review it before a concert.

If it had been something that she didn't know at all, I expect that at her level she could have done a very credible sight read if she got the music.

It's possible she could play most of the notes correctly if she had to sight read it, but I think even that would be a big stretch and unlikely. I think she probably spent countless hours preparing that piece before her first performance of it so IMO the idea that a sight read performance would be good according to her standards is not realisitic.

That is a really good question.

If you watch the video carefully, you will see she has no music on the piano.

Hence me saying "if she got the music"...