I’m wondering if he had some help, lessons, and went over the score before he got there. He has done that before. If I remember right he practiced his pitching before going to a baseball game to throw out the first pitch. He probably had some kind of idea he could do it fairly well. I doubt he would have wanted to stumble in front of big crowds.
I don’t think the ‘maestro’ moment was scripted . . . The President was definitely ready to go; however, Laura was still chatting with one of the event organizers so the President decided to busy himself with the orchestra . . . You could tell that the conductor was genuinely surprised!
I am sure you are right I think he did the same thing with the cricket in Pakistan