Charles L. L. Dalmas wrote:

>There is an urban legend about the premier performance of a Bartok String
>Quartet where the cellist lost his place somewhere in the first thirty
>measures of the last movement.  ...

While I don't know this story, I am reminded of another. A friend of mine
was playing a Chopin Concerto with the Springfield Missouri SO. Somehow at
the end of the exposition in the first movement he sequenced one time too
many and found himself in the cadenza. Instead of bringing the orchestra
in at the coda, the conductor simply picked up at the beginning of the
development section. Going backstage to greet my friend, I stood by as a
long line of the audience came by to visit with the soloist. Only one
person mentioned something like, "my, but that sounded a bit odd in a few
places." Either nobody in else in the audience noticed, or they were all
too polite. Fortunately the next night he played wonderfully.

Karl