I had already played with Koussevitzky and the late Frederick Stock during my first season. As luck would have it, an attack of the flu forced me to play my Boston Symphony appearance without a rehearsal, my physician having authorized the trip only at the last possible moment and on condition that I skip the rehearsal scheduled for the day preceding the concert. / A rehearsalless Beethoven performance was clearly something of a rarity and could have been attempted only with a supreme body of players like the Boston Symphony and a masterly leader like Koussevitzky- though, whatever the outcome of such an emergency performance, the soloist feels cheated of the thrills of a rehearsal such as I described in connection with my Philadelphia Orchestra debut. << less