The Time the Soloist Prepared the Wrong Concerto

By Drew Holmes

Have you ever had that dream where you are taking a math test you did not study for? For me that dream manifests itself on a football field getting ready to step off for a marching band show I have never learned. For one world-class concert pianist, however, this nightmare became a reality.

In 1999, Maria Joao Pires was playing a lunch concert with the Amsterdam Concertgebouworkest conducted by Riccardo Chailly. These types of concerts tend to be more informal, but it is still a live performance in front of a live audience. On this particular concert, Pires had prepared to perform as soloist on a Mozart piano concerto.

Unfortunately for her, she had prepared the wrong concerto

In the video of the performance, you can see the look of terror on her face as she realizes that the orchestra is playing the Mozart Concerto for Piano №20 in d minor, not the one she had prepared. She is visibly panicked and in disbelief that there could be such a miscommunication. Maestro Chailly is encouraging, if not jovial, and tells her to go for it, knowing she played the piece just last season.

She has just seconds to make her decision: give up or do what is seemingly impossible and play a Mozart concerto she had not prepared from memory.

Pires decided to do it and a switch flipped in her mind. She is no longer thinking of how she got here or what she actually prepared to perform. She is accessing a different part of her brain and recalling the correct concerto. In less than a minute she has shifted gears completely and makes her entrance at the appropriate time, orchestra and audience likely unaware of what they are witnessing.

What is truly fascinating is not how composed she is when playing, but how uncomposed she allows herself to be when she is not. The struggle is real, and the outcome is uncertain, but she will not quit or fail without a fight. Those moments of recovery allow her to forge ahead and complete the task at hand.

What lesson can we learn as it relates to the state of the world today?

The world we live in now is not the world we have prepared for. We have endured eighteen-plus months of a global pandemic, lockdowns, cancellations, disruptions to supply chains, social distancing, the list goes on. The song we are playing is not the song we prepared.

But we have a choice.

We can choose to not try, to give up, to accept failure as the only rational outcome. Or we can try. We can find the reserves of strength and knowledge we did not know we had and create something no one has ever seen before or even dreamed possible. When we trust ourselves, we can accomplish so much more than we could have prepared for. It may not be perfect, and we may not stay composed the whole time, but we can do it.

As Maria Joao Pires proved that day in Amsterdam, there will be time to give up later. The opportunity to do something legendary is now.