What a goddess! She looks ready to cry but somehow pulls herself together and dives right in. And the D minor concerto is an absolute beast even if you *are* expecting to play it... I would have died right there onstage. How did they manage to cross so many wires as to not let her know what concerto they were doing, even if they had rehearsed three different ones before? Thank heaven it was one she knew really well! Respect, Maria Joao...major respect.
I know! she is absolutely incredible! Only musicians would understand what kind of pressure that was!! I would definitely have broken down right there on the stage and needing an ambulance..there is the difference between a true amazing professional pianist and me, the mortal...:D
Thank you BB for intensifying our understanding of what an incredible situation this was. It truly is astonishing that in a matter of 20 or 30 seconds she is able to switch from what she was expecting to a different concerto and carry it off without letting on. A miracle!! A tremendous accolade to Maria Joao Pires.
Holy cow, she started and you could feel the trepidation and then as she goes on and starts playing faster it just clicked. Incredible. Truly remarkable.
I feel deepest respect and admiration for Maria Joao Pires. I know her personnaly and I understand, why she did this. This is her respect for the music, the audiance and the orchestra. She is an extremely honest und fantastic artist.
The best thing about this is Chailly - no panic, keeps on beating for the orchestra, but encourages her superbly and gives her the confidence to play it. Brilliant directorship.
@@quinto34 Well he could’ve totally embarrassed her. “Just do as I say, no pressure, LOL”, the fact she made it doesn’t retroactively excuse complete asshole behavior from the conductor.
A very good example that if you calm yourself and just turn inward, all the things you've learned and know are in there. Panic shuts you down, calmness allows the flow. Brava
I had a leader tell me once, "One does not rise to the occasion. They fall to their last level of training." Hell of a performance given the circumstances.
It is quite idiotic to think it was planned. No, miscommunication between agents and orchestra managers happen. Many divas/divos would have left the stage and/or refused to play. She showed humility, courage and tremendous talent. She is a truly remarkable artist. Bravo!
Some explanation found online which makes it much more sensible now: "They (Maria João, conductor, and orchestra) had recorded 6 months earlier three Mozart concerti. This lunch concert was the rehearsal for the evening performance. Since they had rehearsed to prepare the recording six months earlier, this lunch concert was the only rehearsal. She came prepared to play K. 467 and was caught off guard by K. 466 ( although it has been in her repertory for years)."
That does give good context and chimes with what I heard at the time. Just a minor point: I don't know of any recordings of hers with Chailly in Mozart (or anything else, for that matter). Unless it was for radio and and aircheck that never made it onto a commercial recording. She did record both those concertos you mention in 1993 (467) and 2011 (466), respectively. With the COE & Abbado. It also doesn't explain why MJP remembers being called in on short notice. But she also mis-remembers the concerto she thought it would be to have been 488 and that does not chime with any story from when it actually happened.
That was not what happened. She was invited to replace someone else the day before but she missunderstood the piece. She didn't play this one for about 10 months.
Utterly amazing. What must have gone on in her mind? From despair to resolve, playing a concerto with nothing to hold on to except your own memory and the support of the conductor. What a great artist!
This Shows Everybody That She´s Still One Of The Best Classic Piano Players...Being An Honest And Simple Professional Deserving All Our Admiration And Respect !...
To all of you skeptics - just listen to her planned recorded version: the stark difference between the two performances testifies for the fact the those first moments when she enters with her part were literally recreated from a different place in her memory. The her touch, the tempo, timber are all different than her CD. When she plays the first few bars here, it is almost as she is not sure what comes next - which is probably the perfect way to play and listen to music.
amen. i sent this to my daughter who is just emerging onto a world stage with the message - never give up. never give up! superfluous for her as she never surrenders.
Holy crap. Maria is amazing. Even though she rehearsed a completely different concerto, she still played this concerto as if she rehearsed this one. amazing.
Truly inspiring on so many levels. Thank you Maria for showing us all how to overcome adversity and rise to the occasion. There is so much more to strive for than just what's expected. Thank you.
I think the thing about it is that she knew both pieces, but classical music isn't exactly known to be easy, short, or simply written, so freshening up on a concerto some time prior is needed; that is why it's a feat to play perfectly regardless of practicing the wrong piece.
I , as a professionnal musician, personnally think this is a sad part of the job. No budget=no reps.... so much pressure on the artist who are expected to perform as if everything has been taken care of... so much expectations from the audience and "backstage" staff... tough job being an artist and making the dream come through... Bravo to all of you who make little miracles happen unnoticed every single day!
She's amazing :) There are only a few musicians that could do what Maria João Pires did. Wonderful!! Let's not forget to thanks to the conductor who helped Maria calm down :)
Contrary to "PR stunt" theory I am practically certain that was legitimate. 1. Even if it was reherseal, it would be unprofessional to put a stunt like this. 2. They had nothing to gain by this stunt". 3. Pianist have exquisite memory for music. 4. Maria Pires is a very experienced pianist, she must have played this "other" Mozart concerto multiple times, hence she was able to bring it back to her memory. 5. She does look panicked trying to remember what comes next even when she started playing - if she faked it that puts Meryl Streep's acting to shame :)
+Sanderus I never heard anyone say it was a stunt. It couldn't be because it was so private and between them. Even the audience didn't know what was going on. It is only in retrospect that this because exceptional. She didn't know it would be shown on youtube years later.
***** Easily. This was not an "official" evening performance. It was basically an open rehearsal. Add to this that it was an annual event, and Pires or rather her managers were careless enough not to double check if there were any changers in the program.
What happened on this stage restores faith in mankind. Empathy, team work, man-woman equality, and power of the brain... I'm watching this each time I'm feeling down!
In our Age of Mediocrity, it is sad that many people can't recognize greatness when faced with it. To rememer the whole concert, as the conductor says she did, would have been remarkable. To still play it beautifully, as it can be derived from the first bars on the video, is almost superhuman. No, this clearly is not fake nor a publicity stunt. This is a moment of pure beauty. Enjoy it, it doesn't happen that often!
But if she had in any way botched it, the audience would’ve thought “what’s up with her” when the conductor could’ve stopped and resolved the issue without pressure.
There are good reasons for tears watching this miracle. It is not about "extra good working memory and professionalism" etc. etc. ... but for beeing encountered with the pure, human mystery.
You obviously know nothing about the emotional mindset required to be "into" the composition. This remarkable woman was having to set up as she played...an unbelievable achievement. I've played the Dminor many times...no matter the apparently simple first notes, Mozart demands total concentration in advance. She had no advance time, yet within a few notes, she was into it. Mozart would have cheered!!!
The final (and sometimes only) rehearsal in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw is often 'disguised' as an informal Lunch Concert. So yes, indeed, they didn't rehearse before.
The acting analogy is a ridiculous one: she did not forget her lines; a different play was being staged to the one she turned up for. How many actors could have remembered the dialogue for a part he or she was not expecting to play? She was magnificent.
A pianist like Maria Joao Pires doesn't need to fake a mistake in an open rehearsal to help her career, nor did she need the 681,000 views on a website that had yet to be invented.
Its been years since I first saw this video, and I still keep coming back to it. As a piano player, this woman is still one of my absolute heroes! I am pretty decent at memorizing songs, but the fact that she was essentially hung out to dry with the wrong music (a mistake but god damn!), in a concert setting this serious, is horrifying to me. It takes a HELL of a person to recover from that, and then go on to play the song perfectly from memory. I bet alot of us would have been literally vomiting from the dread of that dramatic piano entrance coming up with no music... Edit: 3:23 still gives me crazy chills all of these years later
I heard this story about Slava Rostropovich expecting to play Dvořák cello concerto, yes, the one with few minutes of orchestral intro in the beginnig... So he sits there, relaxed, waiting for his entrace and the orchestra starts - with the Saint-Saëns concerto - the one where cello starts at the second beat in the first bar! Can you imagine the shock and literally no time to prepare anything to play?
Exactly. You can consider yourself extremely lucky if you get 2 rehearsals prior to a concert. And considering how tough Mozart is on the keyboard (studied piano for 9 years before realizing that I didn't have the "memory" retention capabilities to hack it as a concert pianist) to be able to switch like that...is testament to her memory and flexibility as a concert pianist.
Pires entry in the Mozart is exquisite: Beautifully phrased. Even more phenomenal is the story I heard on the radio of John Ogden turning up at a concert to play and checking with the conductor in the artist room just before going out on stage whether they were playing the Brahms First or Second! Barenboim too has a phenomenal gift to memorise.His memory is photographic. There are great musicians and then there are those whose minds operate beyond most people's ability to comprehend.
There are public rehearsals at times :-) It's a great way to prepare for other aspects of performance that closed door rehearsals can't...plus a great way to build a relationship between orchestra and audience. But I think you are right about the Lunchtime concert thing ^_^ And yes, she was amazing...and that conductor knows how to help bring out confidence...definitely good leadership things we can learn from him, too!
How terrifying! I probably would've had a complete mental breakdown if this happened to me. The fact that she was able to recover her senses and try to remember, is incredible. And the fact that she Did remember, and remembered it perfectly, is Really incredible. Good for her, I say. Good for her.
I'm a jazz pianist (hobbyist, more than anything), but I have a degree in classical piano performance, and let me tell you that virtually all of the top jazz pianists that I've talked to or listened to or heard of are talented, often accomplished classical pianists. Along the same lines as your comment, but I've also heard from these musicians that jazz is every bit as demanding technically as classical music, but it requires a different mindset; jazz is in the moment, classical is in the prep.
regardless of whatever theories there might be about this "incident" - i really would LOVE to hear the complete performance of THIS version.....anyone have it ? please...
Seeing many comments here, a few words that I wanted to say: no wonder about the genius and incredible memory capacities of her, and I am pretty sure she is aware of it. the point, I think, why she looks devastated is the ideas and connection to the piece, the colours, the touch. Even when you know a piece since years, if you did not practice a piece intensively recently (even thinking about it helps, but mental practice is also practice) before a performance, it becomes a battle of survival. And that is the thing I think, here she fights like a queen, but I can see that she would have wanted not to fight to survive, instead, interpret the piece, sing her soul out loud, and make piano sing. And that’s the difference.
She's playing a song at a concert that she didn't expect to play.... Chill out. There are billions and billions of people who do far heavier things day to day.
she has grace. "One thing we can say about music is that we can do our best to grasp it and teach it, but there will always be one thing missing this way - grace - the unexpected miracle which gives music its true worth. This ‘je ne sais quoi’ is what drives the composer to compose. It is grace which invites the musician- body and soul- to master his instrument and deepen his understanding. It is grace which attracts music lovers to come to concerts, to be part of a precious and unique event: the communication of this certain something, which is part of everyone’s make-up. The requirement for this ‘transmission’ is not only aesthetic, but ethical: music, like all art, is part of the mystery that shapes humans." [Maria Joao Pires]
A brilliant superhuman achievement from genius lady MJPires, cannot be described in words. No matter who made the mistake before, the conductor should have stopped, very vanity and absolutely unprofessional to put someone in a live performance under such an unimaginable psychological pressure for more than half an hour. She once said in an interview it was 10 months ago that she played it for the last time, incredible. I would have loved to see the conductor's face if she had started at the concert in the evening with Beethoven nr.4 “Oh, you´ll do that, we´ve had it before, come on...”
It was a dress rehearsal for the evening performance, so why not give it a shot? Considering that the conductor had a very specific reason for pairing the Mozart with the Mahler, and the playbills clearly indicate the D-minor concerto, I am more inclined to believe that the mixup was by someone in Pires's camp. The conductor did the right thing by reassuring her, he knew that she could do it.
wow, wow, wow and, probably again wow, wow, wow! I always heard this anecdote, now I have seen it for real! By the way, If I have it right, this was not really a rehearsal as such: it's a lunch concert at the Concertgebouw -wednesdays at midday-, hence the public. So, this happened in front of some 1.000 people. Again, wow, wow, wow!
It's not fake. Welcome to the wonderful and grueling world of music performance, in which world-class musicians allow us a glorious glimpse into the beauty of Mozart, and don't make bullshit claims because they need the attention. It is not uncommon for a soloist to have a single rehearsal (in this case, it's a public rehearsal) before performance--or no rehearsal at all for the most prolific and talented performers. I've seen all sorts of oddities in my days as an orchestral violinist.
ClassicFM in the UK posted this on their website, in case you wondered where all the hits where coming from: www.classicfm.com/artists/maria-joao-pires/guides/wrong-piano-concerto/
And--Classical musicians are the only ones placed under this pressure . A Rock or Country artist could just casually tell the audience of the mix-up, and go on. Not so in the Classical field. BRAVA for a genius performance!!
..PIRES is my go-to Artist for Mozart, especially after this incident.. only a Twin Flame of Mozart could have pulled off what she did.. and every time.. throughout the years.. Better and Better (Remarkable as each time is already the Epitome of Mozart's Art...) We are Blessed to have experienced Pires...!!!
I think it's quite possible, actually. Several orchestras do have unmanned and motorized (on rails) cameras already built into their performance halls that are already placed in key positions to capture the various parts of the orchestra, the conductor, and soloists when there is one. The general formation/set-up of an orchestra doesn't change often, after all. All they would have to do is turn on the camera during rehearsals and performances...so, I don't think it was a stunt, at all.
Professional orchestral musicians often play gigs without rehearsals. It's a pretty common practice, especially with standard common practice repertoire like Mozart.
No they didn't have a rehearsal, because It was during the weekly free lunch concerto, when this happened. You can see that Riccardo Chailly wasn't conducting in evening dress, but dressed up in a quite casual style. But it was a performance in front of a substantive audience. The Amsterdam Concertgebouw is known for staging these free lunch concertos nearly every week during the season, except in the summer months (when there are sponsored 'summer concertos' often with 'artists in residence' who set up shop for months in Amsterdam). The Concertgebouw also regularly programs free public rehearsals during lunch time. The musicians come and play music of pieces they have on their regular repertoire at these lunch concertos. She brought the wrong music with her.
![เปิด อาณาจักร หมื่นล้าน "สาระตั้ม" l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3XE0nPF4YkQ/mqdefault.jpg)
What a goddess! She looks ready to cry but somehow pulls herself together and dives right in. And the D minor concerto is an absolute beast even if you *are* expecting to play it... I would have died right there onstage. How did they manage to cross so many wires as to not let her know what concerto they were doing, even if they had rehearsed three different ones before? Thank heaven it was one she knew really well! Respect, Maria Joao...major respect.
I know! she is absolutely incredible! Only musicians would understand what kind of pressure that was!! I would definitely have broken down right there on the stage and needing an ambulance..there is the difference between a true amazing professional pianist and me, the mortal...:D
Thank you BB for intensifying our understanding of what an incredible situation this was. It truly is astonishing that in a matter of 20 or 30 seconds she is able to switch from what she was expecting to a different concerto and carry it off without letting on. A miracle!! A tremendous accolade to Maria Joao Pires.
Holy cow, she started and you could feel the trepidation and then as she goes on and starts playing faster it just clicked. Incredible. Truly remarkable.
I feel deepest respect and admiration for Maria Joao Pires. I know her personnaly and I understand, why she did this. This is her respect for the music, the audiance and the orchestra. She is an extremely honest und fantastic artist.
The best thing about this is Chailly - no panic, keeps on beating for the orchestra, but encourages her superbly and gives her the confidence to play it. Brilliant directorship.
what he should have done is stopped.
@@edannegrin1345 you didn't like this outcome? interesting..
@@quinto34 Well he could’ve totally embarrassed her. “Just do as I say, no pressure, LOL”, the fact she made it doesn’t retroactively excuse complete asshole behavior from the conductor.
@@magicmulder He could have, but he didn't.. he trusted he abilities and apparently rightfully so..Pires agrees with me lol
@@quinto34 Nah bro. He shouldnt have done that.
A very good example that if you calm yourself and just turn inward, all the things you've learned and know are in there. Panic shuts you down, calmness allows the flow. Brava
I had a leader tell me once, "One does not rise to the occasion. They fall to their last level of training."
Hell of a performance given the circumstances.
It is quite idiotic to think it was planned. No, miscommunication between agents and orchestra managers happen. Many divas/divos would have left the stage and/or refused to play. She showed humility, courage and tremendous talent. She is a truly remarkable artist. Bravo!
Listen to Pires interview. She was asked to replace another pianist 2 days before the concert. Miscommunication at the phone
It happened 15 years ago, but I was still freaking out for her during the entire video. What a genius. I would have loved to hear it all.
Wow, the moment she started playing I teared up so much. Unexpected. But such amazing respect to great talent in the face of fear and doubt.
Some explanation found online which makes it much more sensible now: "They (Maria João, conductor, and orchestra) had recorded 6 months earlier three Mozart concerti. This lunch concert was the rehearsal for the evening performance. Since they had rehearsed to prepare the recording six months earlier, this lunch concert was the only rehearsal. She came prepared to play K. 467 and was caught off guard by K. 466 ( although it has been in her repertory for years)."
That explains how she was able to play the correct solo part, but not how she could have been confused as to what concerto was to be played.
Thank-you for the context! Where did you find the info, please? (I need to cite the source.)
@@Manx123 miscommunication probably. Could have been as simple as a typo in an email, who knows.
That does give good context and chimes with what I heard at the time.
Just a minor point: I don't know of any recordings of hers with Chailly in Mozart (or anything else, for that matter). Unless it was for radio and and aircheck that never made it onto a commercial recording. She did record both those concertos you mention in 1993 (467) and 2011 (466), respectively. With the COE & Abbado.
It also doesn't explain why MJP remembers being called in on short notice. But she also mis-remembers the concerto she thought it would be to have been 488 and that does not chime with any story from when it actually happened.
That was not what happened. She was invited to replace someone else the day before but she missunderstood the piece. She didn't play this one for about 10 months.
Only a GREAT performer would be able to do this!FANTASTIC.BRAVO!
Utterly amazing. What must have gone on in her mind? From despair to resolve, playing a concerto with nothing to hold on to except your own memory and the support of the conductor. What a great artist!
This Shows Everybody That She´s Still One Of The Best Classic Piano Players...Being An Honest And Simple Professional Deserving All Our Admiration And Respect !...
To all of you skeptics - just listen to her planned recorded version: the stark difference between the two performances testifies for the fact the those first moments when she enters with her part were literally recreated from a different place in her memory. The her touch, the tempo, timber are all different than her CD. When she plays the first few bars here, it is almost as she is not sure what comes next - which is probably the perfect way to play and listen to music.
"which is probably the perfect way to play and listen to music"
Really? So she did a better job here than on the CD?
@@Manx123 I don't think that he was implying she did a better job here, but that that she transferred her emotions into the piece
amen. i sent this to my daughter who is just emerging onto a world stage with the message - never give up. never give up! superfluous for her as she never surrenders.
Holy crap. Maria is amazing. Even though she rehearsed a completely different concerto, she still played this concerto as if she rehearsed this one. amazing.
Truly inspiring on so many levels. Thank you Maria for showing us all how to overcome adversity and rise to the occasion. There is so much more to strive for than just what's expected. Thank you.
why isn't the rest of this on youtube? this is incredible...and i like the orchestra's aggressive taken of the introduction
I think the thing about it is that she knew both pieces, but classical music isn't exactly known to be easy, short, or simply written, so freshening up on a concerto some time prior is needed; that is why it's a feat to play perfectly regardless of practicing the wrong piece.
I , as a professionnal musician, personnally think this is a sad part of the job. No budget=no reps.... so much pressure on the artist who are expected to perform as if everything has been taken care of... so much expectations from the audience and "backstage" staff... tough job being an artist and making the dream come through...
Bravo to all of you who make little miracles happen unnoticed every single day!
She's amazing :)
There are only a few musicians that could do what Maria João Pires did.
Wonderful!!
Let's not forget to thanks to the conductor who helped Maria calm down :)
Contrary to "PR stunt" theory I am practically certain that was legitimate. 1. Even if it was reherseal, it would be unprofessional to put a stunt like this. 2. They had nothing to gain by this stunt". 3. Pianist have exquisite memory for music. 4. Maria Pires is a very experienced pianist, she must have played this "other" Mozart concerto multiple times, hence she was able to bring it back to her memory. 5. She does look panicked trying to remember what comes next even when she started playing - if she faked it that puts Meryl Streep's acting to shame :)
+Sanderus
I never heard anyone say it was a stunt. It couldn't be because it was so private and between them. Even the audience didn't know what was going on. It is only in retrospect that this because exceptional. She didn't know it would be shown on youtube years later.
+Sanderus Watch her perform it with the Berlin Philharmonic it's electrifying
+Sanderus - I don't that anybody that has followed the careers of Maria Joao Pires and Riccardo Chailly would ever think this was a PR stunt.
Still no explanation as to how this actually could have happened.
***** Easily. This was not an "official" evening performance. It was basically an open rehearsal. Add to this that it was an annual event, and Pires or rather her managers were careless enough not to double check if there were any changers in the program.
I was so nervous for her... cried once she began! So lovely... genius at work.
What happened on this stage restores faith in mankind. Empathy, team work, man-woman equality, and power of the brain... I'm watching this each time I'm feeling down!
In our Age of Mediocrity, it is sad that many people can't recognize greatness when faced with it. To rememer the whole concert, as the conductor says she did, would have been remarkable. To still play it beautifully, as it can be derived from the first bars on the video, is almost superhuman. No, this clearly is not fake nor a publicity stunt. This is a moment of pure beauty. Enjoy it, it doesn't happen that often!
But if she had in any way botched it, the audience would’ve thought “what’s up with her” when the conductor could’ve stopped and resolved the issue without pressure.
There are good reasons for tears watching this miracle. It is not about "extra good working memory and professionalism" etc. etc. ... but for beeing encountered with the pure, human mystery.
I get the feeling that director imagines that, of course, she can play any concerto. He has appropriately placed confidence in her.
Spontaneous performance of unexpected piece revealed her actual beauty of understanding how it should be performed. ..
Why did that make me cry when she succeeds at the end? Maybe because she took a leap of faith - I think there’s a lesson in there.
Oh my gosh, my heart was racing with anxiety for her! Ugh, that was a close one that resonates with me all too well.
That piano entrance though...
awful. you'd do better ;-)
The emotions she was feeling is actually perfect for the piece hah
You obviously know nothing about the emotional mindset required to be "into" the composition. This remarkable woman was having to set up as she played...an unbelievable achievement. I've played the Dminor many times...no matter the apparently simple first notes, Mozart demands total concentration in advance. She had no advance time, yet within a few notes, she was into it. Mozart would have cheered!!!
Didn't you get the email?
No
It went straight to Spam
The final (and sometimes only) rehearsal in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw is often 'disguised' as an informal Lunch Concert. So yes, indeed, they didn't rehearse before.
this is what a true PRO is all about!
The acting analogy is a ridiculous one: she did not forget her lines; a different play was being staged to the one she turned up for. How many actors could have remembered the dialogue for a part he or she was not expecting to play? She was magnificent.
Yes, more like that. Also, she is the protagonist and has long monologues.
Actors don't rely on muscle memory. I think the analogy doesn't fit well.
@@michelepiserchia1403 Muscle memory only gets you so far. Especially if you have to remember your cues when playing with an orchestra.
really amazing memory and exquisite playing
My favourite classical pianist, she is the absolute best. So proud that she's portuguese!
A pianist like Maria Joao Pires doesn't need to fake a mistake in an open rehearsal to help her career, nor did she need the 681,000 views on a website that had yet to be invented.
I don't know why, but this actually moved me to tears
It’s because D minor is the saddest of all keys.
Every pianist fear, im in high school and have to play a concert for the class. This gave me goosebumps.
Simply amazing!!
Its been years since I first saw this video, and I still keep coming back to it. As a piano player, this woman is still one of my absolute heroes! I am pretty decent at memorizing songs, but the fact that she was essentially hung out to dry with the wrong music (a mistake but god damn!), in a concert setting this serious, is horrifying to me. It takes a HELL of a person to recover from that, and then go on to play the song perfectly from memory. I bet alot of us would have been literally vomiting from the dread of that dramatic piano entrance coming up with no music...
Edit: 3:23 still gives me crazy chills all of these years later
And yet it sounded soooo beautiful... What an enormous artist!!
Is there a full version of this concert on video somewhere?
leaving a comment incase someone links
Still waiting...
Me too
@@dmcg247 me too.
@@piggy2309 same.
Change to a different concerto within minutes on stage and play it perfectly! I adore her so muchhhhh!
Que valentía, y que profesionalismo, una verdadera joya, admirable
I heard this story about Slava Rostropovich expecting to play Dvořák cello concerto, yes, the one with few minutes of orchestral intro in the beginnig... So he sits there, relaxed, waiting for his entrace and the orchestra starts - with the Saint-Saëns concerto - the one where cello starts at the second beat in the first bar! Can you imagine the shock and literally no time to prepare anything to play?
The mindset of a true talent...
At about two and a half minutes in she looks profoundly unhappy. Her anxiety is palpable but she was amazing.
just increadible! chapeau to Maria Joao Pires
Brilliant pianist! I wanted to hear the rest of the song!
Song?
@Józef Hofmann it is absolutely the most annoying thing.
PIECE !!!!! Not song!!!!
What a legend, talk about staring at the abyss and jumping right in
Exactly. You can consider yourself extremely lucky if you get 2 rehearsals prior to a concert. And considering how tough Mozart is on the keyboard (studied piano for 9 years before realizing that I didn't have the "memory" retention capabilities to hack it as a concert pianist) to be able to switch like that...is testament to her memory and flexibility as a concert pianist.
Pires entry in the Mozart is exquisite: Beautifully phrased.
Even more phenomenal is the story I heard on the radio of John Ogden turning up at a concert to play and checking with the conductor in the artist room just before going out on stage whether they were playing the Brahms First or Second! Barenboim too has a phenomenal gift to memorise.His memory is photographic. There are great musicians and then there are those whose minds operate beyond most people's ability to comprehend.
There are public rehearsals at times :-) It's a great way to prepare for other aspects of performance that closed door rehearsals can't...plus a great way to build a relationship between orchestra and audience. But I think you are right about the Lunchtime concert thing ^_^ And yes, she was amazing...and that conductor knows how to help bring out confidence...definitely good leadership things we can learn from him, too!
This is so amazing and no words can describe! What an inspiration!!
Fantastic! What a professional!
How terrifying! I probably would've had a complete mental breakdown if this happened to me. The fact that she was able to recover her senses and try to remember, is incredible. And the fact that she Did remember, and remembered it perfectly, is Really incredible. Good for her, I say. Good for her.
She could make it because the maestro believed in her. What a lesson for our managers!
I feel scared just looking at the horror and the despair on her face. its just impossible to imagine.. What a legend
Reading about nervus vagus brought me here. Amazing!
I'm a jazz pianist (hobbyist, more than anything), but I have a degree in classical piano performance, and let me tell you that virtually all of the top jazz pianists that I've talked to or listened to or heard of are talented, often accomplished classical pianists.
Along the same lines as your comment, but I've also heard from these musicians that jazz is every bit as demanding technically as classical music, but it requires a different mindset; jazz is in the moment, classical is in the prep.
Esta mulher é absolutamente genial!
La maestra Maria Joao Pires es algo excepcional, fuera de serie, fantástica.
regardless of whatever theories there might be about this "incident" - i really would LOVE to hear the complete performance of THIS version.....anyone have it ? please...
Thanks for the information ! it's incredible that she could still play it
She's my absolute hero. What a great artist.
Seeing many comments here, a few words that I wanted to say: no wonder about the genius and incredible memory capacities of her, and I am pretty sure she is aware of it. the point, I think, why she looks devastated is the ideas and connection to the piece, the colours, the touch. Even when you know a piece since years, if you did not practice a piece intensively recently (even thinking about it helps, but mental practice is also practice) before a performance, it becomes a battle of survival. And that is the thing I think, here she fights like a queen, but I can see that she would have wanted not to fight to survive, instead, interpret the piece, sing her soul out loud, and make piano sing. And that’s the difference.
it's like turning up for a school exam, having revised the wrong topic... and panicking oh ****...
and then still pulling it off. ^_^ Bravo MJP
this is PURE TALENT!! I bet she hadn't played this song for a few months.......
1. She is wonderful
2. I want to hug her so bad
3. From now on, I will say "con-TCHer-to".
That's how we Italians say it :) :)
That's how you're supposed to say it
haha, that's it, Xau13
:-)
@TH-cam Google e Facebook vaffanculo the French way 😅
Dedicated to all those who think they have faced difficult situations at work. Believe me nothing is heavier than this on your psyche, nothing.
Fighting in war may be a little heavier.
She's playing a song at a concert that she didn't expect to play.... Chill out. There are billions and billions of people who do far heavier things day to day.
@@anon4096 i fought in a war.
Even if it wasn't true story, these extraordinary musicians are capable of such tasks, which IS amazing.
she has grace. "One thing we can say about music is that we can do our best to grasp it and teach it, but there will always be one thing missing this way - grace - the unexpected miracle which gives music its true worth. This ‘je ne sais quoi’ is what drives the composer to compose. It is grace which invites the musician- body and soul- to master his instrument and deepen his understanding. It is grace which attracts music lovers to come to concerts, to be part of a precious and unique event: the communication of this certain something, which is part of everyone’s make-up. The requirement for this ‘transmission’ is not only aesthetic, but ethical: music, like all art, is part of the mystery that shapes humans." [Maria Joao Pires]
What an extraordinary musician...total respect but the stuff of nightmares!
A brilliant superhuman achievement from genius lady MJPires, cannot be described in words. No matter who made the mistake before, the conductor should have stopped, very vanity and absolutely unprofessional to put someone in a live performance under such an unimaginable psychological pressure for more than half an hour. She once said in an interview it was 10 months ago that she played it for the last time, incredible. I would have loved to see the conductor's face if she had started at the concert in the evening with Beethoven nr.4 “Oh, you´ll do that, we´ve had it before, come on...”
It was a dress rehearsal for the evening performance, so why not give it a shot? Considering that the conductor had a very specific reason for pairing the Mozart with the Mahler, and the playbills clearly indicate the D-minor concerto, I am more inclined to believe that the mixup was by someone in Pires's camp. The conductor did the right thing by reassuring her, he knew that she could do it.
Maria Joao Pires you are brilliant!!!!
I love to see the conductor shine, leading the musicians.
Thank you for your response. Anyway, your video is valuable as it shows unforgettable moment.
wow, wow, wow
and, probably again
wow, wow, wow!
I always heard this anecdote, now I have seen it for real!
By the way, If I have it right, this was not really a rehearsal as such: it's a lunch concert at the Concertgebouw -wednesdays at midday-, hence the public. So, this happened in front of some 1.000 people.
Again, wow, wow, wow!
Most likely, this was a public rehearsal at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
👀 Astonishing 👏🏻👏🏻
I am sincerely touched by what I have seen.
I need a napkin.
It's not fake. Welcome to the wonderful and grueling world of music performance, in which world-class musicians allow us a glorious glimpse into the beauty of Mozart, and don't make bullshit claims because they need the attention. It is not uncommon for a soloist to have a single rehearsal (in this case, it's a public rehearsal) before performance--or no rehearsal at all for the most prolific and talented performers. I've seen all sorts of oddities in my days as an orchestral violinist.
ClassicFM in the UK posted this on their website, in case you wondered where all the hits where coming from:
www.classicfm.com/artists/maria-joao-pires/guides/wrong-piano-concerto/
And--Classical musicians are the only ones placed under this pressure . A Rock or Country artist could just casually tell the audience of the mix-up, and go on. Not so in the Classical field. BRAVA for a genius performance!!
Me emociono cada vez que lo veo, imposible empatizar con esa situación. Maria Joao una genia total.
This is pure magic!
this is so beautiful
that woman is a genius
This moved me to tears
THAT'S the MEANING of P-R-O-F-E-S-S-I-O-N-A-L ... knowing all was wrong and keeping pushing to get through BRAAAVOOOOO !!!!
its all in the head. she can play blindfolded in the middle of the night, but when fear kicks in it messes you up
Bravo! What makes greatness.
What a boss. "Fuck it, we'll do it live!"
..PIRES is my go-to Artist for Mozart, especially after this incident.. only a Twin Flame of Mozart could have pulled off what she did.. and every time.. throughout the years.. Better and Better (Remarkable as each time is already the Epitome of Mozart's Art...) We are Blessed to have experienced Pires...!!!
I think it's quite possible, actually. Several orchestras do have unmanned and motorized (on rails) cameras already built into their performance halls that are already placed in key positions to capture the various parts of the orchestra, the conductor, and soloists when there is one. The general formation/set-up of an orchestra doesn't change often, after all. All they would have to do is turn on the camera during rehearsals and performances...so, I don't think it was a stunt, at all.
¡Fantástica Maria Joao Pires! Es una maravilla de pianista, parece que fuera hecha toda de música.
lol, and I complain about not remember a 30sec solo! God damn, this is pure talent!
Professional orchestral musicians often play gigs without rehearsals. It's a pretty common practice, especially with standard common practice repertoire like Mozart.
0:45
That lady in the audience with the white hair new sometin' was up
This is inconceivable that it could happen. Didn't they have a rehearsal???
No they didn't have a rehearsal, because It was during the weekly free lunch concerto, when this happened.
You can see that Riccardo Chailly wasn't conducting in evening dress, but dressed up in a quite casual style.
But it was a performance in front of a substantive audience.
The Amsterdam Concertgebouw is known for staging these free lunch concertos nearly every week during the season, except in the summer months (when there are sponsored 'summer concertos' often with 'artists in residence' who set up shop for months in Amsterdam).
The Concertgebouw also regularly programs free public rehearsals during lunch time.
The musicians come and play music of pieces they have on their regular repertoire at these lunch concertos. She brought the wrong music with her.
You're right, they usually are free, but there's still quite a bit of difference between performing for a live audience and closed-door rehearsal.