Beethoven Performs From Blank Pages

At the 1803 premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 3 in Vienna, Beethoven sat down to perform with a page turner beside him, only for the assistant to discover that the soloist's score was almost completely blank. The concerto was still a work in progress, and Beethoven had not fully written out the piano part, so the pages held only a few scattered notes and cues. Instead of stopping, he played his entire solo line from memory.

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