Soloist Prepares Wrong Concerto And Finds Out On Stage -- But Still Performs Perfectly

January 23, 2020

Back in 1999, pianist Maria João Pires was scheduled to play a Mozart Piano Concerto at a concert in Amsterdam with conductor Riccardo Chailly.

However, there was a problem. A very big problem.

Pires had looked at the concert's schedule in advance and learned the concerto accordingly, but it was the wrong one. So when the orchestra began playing, she immediately knew what had happened.

But Maria, with some encouragement from Chailly, trawled her muscle memory and miraculously joined in with the correct concerto without missing a single note.