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Around Town

On the rocks

By Frank Kuznik
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
September 26th, 2007 issue

There have been some wonderful concerts in the Prague Autumn festival, currently under way at the Rudolfinum. The Russian State Symphony Orchestra did a great night of Prokofiev featuring a dazzling piano soloist, Alexander Ghindin. Michel Swierczewski led the Czech Philharmonic in an impressive evening of 20th-century music, and superstar conductor Valery Gergiev lived up to his advance billing with the Rotterdam Philharmonic.

But the most compelling show this year has been offstage, in the disturbing behavior of the festival director, Pavel Špiroch. The unthinkable happened Saturday night, Sept. 15, when Špiroch canceled the Staatskapelle Dresden concert after a run-in with piano soloist Helene Grimaud. Hundreds of irate concertgoers waiting on the front steps of the Rudolfinum were told to go home.
There has been a flurry of recriminations ever since. The festival put out a press release accusing Grimaud of making unreasonable demands to tune and alter the Rudolfinum’s Steinway just before the concert, and faulting her for the cancellation. Grimaud says there was a legitimate problem with the middle pedal, and that rather than try to fix it, Špiroch became belligerent and “threatening,” and canceled the concert himself.
More details surface almost every day, but they are all beside the main point, which is Špiroch’s drinking problem. It’s been hinted at in stories in previous years, and one account of this year’s fracas with Grimaud went so far as to note, “The director of the festival was allegedly drunk before the concert.”
In fact, Špiroch is often drunk at his concerts. I first became aware of this during the 2005 festival, when I watched him wrap American conductor Marin Alsop in a bear hug backstage and act way too familiar. I thought he was coming on to her until I realized he had been drinking and was having a classic maudlin, sloppy drunk moment.
At last year’s festival, Špiroch and a female companion regularly fell asleep during the performances. It was impossible to miss this, as they sat in prominent seats on the main floor. One unforgettable evening, a thundering Shostakovich symphony ended with Špiroch passed out with his head back, snoring loudly, and his companion collapsed unconscious on the seat in front of her.
Even the crown princess of Denmark, in town to see the Danish National Symphony Orchestra perform, went home complaining about Špiroch’s boorish behavior.
This year, Špiroch outdid himself three nights after the cancellation, at the Russian State Symphony concert. When I stopped to greet him, I could smell the alcohol from three feet away. After the first piece, two assistants came to help Špiroch carry out his companion, who had once again passed out. As the three of them helped her down the auditorium stairs, Špiroch tripped and fell, apparently too drunk to walk. It was an astonishing faux pas in one of the city’s most revered cultural institutions.
Špiroch was nowhere to be seen after the concert, and has been only a sporadic visitor since. Last week he missed one of the concerts with Gergiev, the biggest name in this year’s festival.
I had hoped to see him that night and talk to him — if he was sober enough to have a conversation. But aside from his attempts to besmirch Grimaud, Špiroch isn’t doing much talking anymore. A subsequent interview request drew this response from the festival marketing manager, Lucie Johanovská: “Pavel is very busy now and he has already said everything in his statement [the press release about the cancellation].”
It’s too bad. Špiroch seems to be a person in need of help, and if he’s surrounded by protectors and enablers, he’s unlikely to get it.
And too bad for the festival, which is now the talk of Central European music circles for all the wrong reasons. How much worse can it get? Keep your eye on the man snoring in row 17, seat 34.
Frank Kuznik can be reached at
fkuznik@praguepost.com

Frank Kuznik can be reached at fkuznik@praguepost.com


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