We root nicely!

Why are there no disciplinary commissions for culture? Who is poor pianist Hélène Grimaud to turn to with her claim that Pavel Spiroch, director of the Prague Autumn festival, chased her out of the Rudolfinum?

It's still hard to believe. Before the Dresden Staatskapelle's concert in Prague 15 September, the Frenchwoman asked a tuner to adjust the mid-range keys on a borrowed instrument. It was not particularly mean; music stars often have less-practical requests than simply making things work to improve their performance. The tuner, however, found the request difficult (he referred to in a press statement as „the application of acetone and celluloid suspension“), so he offered to procure for Grimaud a better piano used by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra for recordings. According to witnesses, Spiroch – reputedly inebriated – then burst into Grimaud's dressing room and banished her and the orchestra from the hall, saying Prague does not need such troublemakers.

His actions call to mind unpleasant parallels. „Anyone who ever played football knows that it is hardly accompanied by polite swearing,“ Sparta Praha Assistant Coach Horst Siegl said Thursday in defending football players Tomáš Řepka and Martin Abraham in front of a disciplinary commission. During a match in Teplice 16 September, one day after the Rudolfinum incident…