August 16, 2026
Athens, GR 14 C
Expand search form
Blog

The nightmare moment of a mighty pianist

Summer’s a time for wearing silly hats

The Portuguese pianist Maria Joao Pires, 80 today, became a global legend when, at a lunchtime concert in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw in 1998, she heard the orchestra start up a different Mozart concerto from the one she was expecting to play.

Her face is a picture of panic and depression.

The conductor, Riccardo Chailly, tells her she can make the switch from memory. He said: ‘You’re going to do well.’

She replied: ‘I am going to try.’

Amazingly, she did.

The video went viral on Youtube in 2013.

Happy birthday, Maria.

The post The nightmare moment of a mighty pianist appeared first on Slippedisc.

Previous Article

Who’s conducting the Olympics?

Next Article

Half a quartet gets wed

You might be interested in …

Wolves honour Elgar’s Dorabella

Wolves honour Elgar’s Dorabella

The Wolverhampton Society has affixed a blue plaque to the house where one of the friends mentioned in Enigma Variations lived. Known to Elgar as Dorabella, Dora lived with her father the Rev Alfred Penny, […]

Just in: Jonas Kaufmann goes it alone

Just in: Jonas Kaufmann goes it alone

In a sign he is winding down his future availability for opera engagements, the German tenor has announced an end to his career-long representation by the New York firm of Zemsky/Green. Kaufmann’s personal manager Bruce […]

Marianne Faithfull, RIP

Marianne Faithfull, RIP

The Sixties singer and Mick Jagger girlfriend died today in London aged 78. Austrian-Jewish on her mother’s side, Marianne grew up in the north of England in considerable poverty. Starting out as a folk singer, […]