Musical Tidbits (and Mishaps) #1

[Lance]

Prior to conductor Hugo Rignold becoming chief conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic in 1948, he spent some of his wartime service in Cairo, Egypt where he led the Middle East Symphony Orchestra. This was an ad-hoc group consisting of army musicians joined with such local or expatriate players as could be picked up and travel from army base to army base in order to entertain the troops. There was never any time for rehearsals. Rignold mentioned one occasion when the orchestra assembled on the makeshift platform for a performance of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto. Rignold and pianist Eileen Joyce walked on and the pianist sat down at the piano as the orchestra began the introduction. When Joyce opened the piano's key cover she found there was no actual keyboard. The piano movers delivered the piano but forgot to replace the action/keyboard.

Talk about an embarrassing situation!

[barney]

What a wonderful story. Did she sing the part?
I imagine they had to play something else.

[John F]

I'll bet there were some excellent players in the Middle East Symphony Orchestra. The Royal Air Force Symphony Orchestra, which included Dennis Brain and Norman Del Mar, provided the core of the Philharmonia Orchestra when Walter Legge founded it after World War II.