In the '70s, Martina Arroyo cancelled her appearance at a Carnegie Hall anniversary gala because of illness, and Isaac Stern recruited Horowitz and Rostropovich in a matter of hours for their first collaboration. They had one rehearsal and then performed the Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata. The event was recorded but I can't find the information on line. Help? Incidentally, the concerts Rostropovich conducted with the SF Symphony for the past two weeks will *not* be broadcast on KDFC - his contract specified no recording of any kind. And, Googling for "Rachmaninoff Horowitz Rostropovich," I came upon this White House story, assuredly not associated with the current occupant: [Jimmy Carter on the "Mad About Music" radio program, with Gilbert Kaplan] "... one of the things that I wanted Horowitz to do when he came [to the White House] was to play Rachmaninoff because when I was a midshipmen in the Naval Academy my roommate was Robert Scott, and he was a classical pianist. So we used to play Rachmaninoff's concertos. We didn't have much money then either - I'm not trying to present a poverty picture but we only got $4.00 a month to spend, so we spent all our money on classical music and we would get Rachmaninoff's Concertos by Horowitz, by Rachmaninoff himself and by Rubinstein and compare their techniques and how to play it. So when Rachmaninoff was my choice, Horowitz agreed to play it. "When Mr. Horowitz came to the White House on Saturday afternoon to get ready, we had the East Room prepared with a platform there, he brought his own Steinway piano, but he thought the room was too harsh sounding. So I went upstairs myself, with my blue jeans on, as President of the United States, and brought down a oriental carpet and Horowitz and I placed that carpet at different places against the platform until he was satisfied that the resonance in the room suited him. But this is one of the high points of my life to sit there and hear Rachmaninoff's music played by Mr. Horowitz, who had in the past always refused to come to the White House [since a visit in 1931]." Janos Gereben/SF www.sfcv.org [log in to unmask]