Stokowski

12 & 17 October 1971 Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City. Jorge mentions a brief lapse of memory on the conductor's part, which frightened him. Full details added to the relevant page.

Oliver Daniel in his biography of Stokowski has this as taking place in Carnegie Hall (p.866).  Bolet mentions that the conductor has a lapse during the first of the two concerts.  'The last movement of the concerto has a middle section which is briefly introduced by the orchestra and then the piano takes it alone; it's a rather extended section - rather lyric, poet, and it must be forty-five or fifty bars of music where the piano plays completely alone, and the without interruption or break the orchestra comes in with a bassoon solo using the same theme as the piano had announced before.  Well, I got to that spot and there was no bassoon.  What does one do in a case like that?... So I played about two or three bars and went back to make the connection again to see if the bassoon would come in.  Stokowski was completely on the moon. I don't know whether he was so entranced by the beauty of the music or what.  I presume he forgot where he was or that he was conducting. It was a terrible moment. I never exactly found out how he reacted, whether it was some member of the orchestra that made some motion to him but he finally came to.  Everything else went like clockwork.' (Conversation with JB, 14 December 1976)