Wanda Landowska, who once said to another eminent Bach specialist, “You continue to play Bach your way, and I’ll continue to play him his way,” was also famous for her dramatic stage entrances. Harold Schonberg describes one such entrance in his book The Great Pianists:

Fifteen minutes before the start of the event the audience was already firmly in place. Mme. Landowska made everybody wait a good while before she decided to come out. Finally the stage door opened and The Presence approached.

It seemed to take her a good five minutes to walk the twenty or so feet to the instrument. Her palms were pressed together in prayer a la Durer, her eyes were cast to the heavens, and everybody realized she was in communion with J.S. Bach, getting some last minute coaching and encouragement. She looked like the keeper of the flame as, dressed in some kind of shapeless black covering, her feet shod in velvet ballet slippers, she levitated to the harpsichord. It was one of the great entrances of all time.