Clutch Performances

There’s never an easy solution when a soloist cancels on an orchestra, and for the Oregon Symphony last weekend, a sudden hand injury to pianist Louis Lortie only hours before showtime left a major void in their concert where Rachmaninoff’s 3rd should have been. On one half-hour’s notice, the orchestra’s musicians agreed to sight-read Tchaikovsky’s ultra-familiar 4th symphony as a replacement, and won a standing ovation for their efforts. Even more amazingly, with one concert still to be performed the next night, the symphony managed to convince an award-winning soloist to board a plane from Alabama to the Pacific Northwest and perform the original concerto with no rehearsals.