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This story is rather long, complicated, unknown and technical, but anyone with a vivid imagination like yours could certainly make the most of it I cannot come anywhere near the unknown of this concert but perhaps someone as senile as Mrs. Upham, had she been there, may have caught on during the subtle, almost melodramatic moments of this episode, hilarious and near disaster: Naturally, it is always customary for a soloist to rehearse with the orchestra before a performances - that is, with the exception of pianist Josef Hofmann and Frederick Stock. Their long association together, his frequent appearances with the orchestra seemed to make a rehearsal less mandatory - Even during the usual shop talk before their performance, the suspect of the Concerto for Piano, for some almost unbelievable reason, never came up. What makes it even more fantastic is that Hofmann thought he was to play the Beethoven Concerto No. 2 in B flat, while actually the Schumann A minor was on the program.

       And now for the hilarious but near disastrous

results of this incredible mix-up - Hofmann, seated at the piano bowed to the conductor and orchestra, quite the natural and accepted procedure,