An Tianxu is confused after hearing the orchestra playing the wrong concerto. Photo: Screenshot of video by The Beijing News

 A Chinese pianist, on Friday, missed a chance at winning one of the medals in the International Tchaikovsky Competition due to the organizer's mistake, but he received a special award and unexpected online fame back home. 

An Tianxu, 20, planned to perform Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 followed by Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for the final round of the competition. 

But the organizing committee gave the conductor and orchestra the wrong order of play. 

So, when the performance started, the orchestra played the Rachmaninov while An was expecting them to play the Tchaikovsky piece, causing the young pianist to miss his cue during their introductory part.

He soon realized that the orchestra was playing a different piece of music and caught up with the notes in seconds. 

The committee asked An to perform again but he declined, therefore, finally receiving fourth prize.    

The Tchaikovksy Competition also released a statement blaming the "gross error" in the ordering of the works on a member of staff, who has been fired. 

A video of An's confused face went viral on Chinese social media over the weekend.