Quick confession – Felix Slováček: The affair with the lover served me well

Felix, it’s not long since you returned from America. What were you doing there?

I was in Texas with my son Felix and his friend, the pianist Grokhovsky to tour some festival. We played not only popular music, but mainly classical. For instance, I played the first movement from the Stamitz concerto for clarinet, and with Felix we played a concert for two clarinets by František Kramář. These are unknown pieces over there, and people liked them. It’s not like when Czechs do tours of Sokol clubs. There were only foreigners.

Can you count how many years you’ve spent in the music business?

I haven’t done anything else since conservatory, so more than fifty years. About 55 years.

That’s an incredibly long time. It must be the most important thing to you, after your health.

It’s true that I do nothing else but music. Everything else around me is merely marginal.

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Could you describe your feeling for music?

It is definitely passion, and friendship and a strange type of love. It is the fulfilment of a lifelong dream and every time I stand on the stage, it is a form of relaxation, a holiday. The biggest problem is getting on that stage somehow. What I mean is making the concert happen.

I don’t want to sound impertinent, but at what age do musicians retire?

Depends on who. (laughs) There are musicians who die on the stage.

Do you want to die like that too?

Well if I am to die… it would certainly be nice, but probably not for those around. One should live and die in a healthy way.

You say that standing on the stage is the greatest rest for you, but in my opinion it must be rather physically and mentally demanding.

Yes, I have to admit that staying in shape is getting increasingly more difficult. But when I walk up in front of the orchestra or just pick up the clarinet and stand in front of the audience, it’s a sort of stage phenomenon – you forget about everything and feel the immense desire to achieve something.

And you’ve had this all your life?

Yes, and I hope it will continue.

How difficult was it for you to establish yourself in the business, in order to make a living from music and not just do it for pleasure?

I have to admit that I’ve always done it for pleasure. Many times, I got nothing from it, and even today I often play for charity. But then suddenly the money starts coming. Sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the event.

But the money has to be invested back, for instance into music instruments. Or what do you spend it on?

Naturally, musical instruments are an expensive affair. Reeds for the clarinet, saxophone, all cost something, but it’s not important. I mostly enjoyed life. I like good wine. My travels around the world were usually paid by somebody, because I usually travelled to play, but not always.

What are you planning now in terms of work?

I would like to organise several concerts for the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Czechoslovak republic, and also for my forthcoming birthday. But I don’t know yet if I will be doing them. You know, it used to be that I’d take the clarinet, play some music and get the money. Now, I have to find the money in order to play the clarinet. Times have changed. To arrange a concert at the Hybernia Theatre on 29 May, I have to knock on the doors of several sponsors.

If you were to compare the situation in the music business now and thirty years ago, is it the financial aspect?

It is incomparable. There were institutions that had professional orchestras, and now there isn’t a single such institution. It’s as though somebody were trying to say that such music never existed and shouldn’t be played. But that’s not right. In such a case, Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto could be played on a synthetic keyboard accompanied by synthetic music. An entire symphonic orchestra can be recorded into a synthesiser, but it’s just not the same. We are losing traditional music. If it’s to be played the way it was written by the composers, then there needs to be a big band of at least 17 musicians.

Musicians have always been surrounded by women. How as the approach of fans changed?

Musicians were always surrounded by women because they always earned some kind of money. Now, everybody except musicians earns money. Women don’t really linger around them anymore. But those who love music do come.

Do they still send you letters?

That doesn’t happen very often. I get flowers when I play somewhere.

Do you fans read tabloids? Does news from your private life discourage them?

Naturally, lots of people read tabloids, but I cannot answer that question. I don’t see inside their heads, whether my fans are angry with me or with somebody else.

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What about sponsors or event organisers? Did your private situation discourage them from offering you work?

No, I have more work now than might be necessary at my age. (laughs)

Felix, are you satisfied?

I’ve never been satisfied. Seriously. I am a sort of rolling stone… It keeps pushing me towards something new, discovering something unknown, starting something new, seeing something beautiful, not just with music, but also…

…also with women?

I’m not saying that. But with them too. (smiles)

You have a young, beautiful woman at your side. Is it an impulse for life?

Definitely. It is certainly beautiful, inspiring and a sort of extra kick for everything I do.

Were you not afraid?

At first I was, but more of all the things that would happen around it. A huge bubble was created around us.

A huge bubble is always created around things at the start, but I think you coped quite well, did you not?

I hope so. Lucie and I have been together for three years now, but you know how it is. Whenever journalists have nothing to do, they reach for Slováček, and not just me. I’m certainly not the only one, they definitely write about others too. It bothers me, of course, but on the other hand, who would write about me, an old bandmaster and musician, if I hadn’t caused such an affair? (laughs) I take it quite sportingly.

Do you think the newspapers would no longer write about you if you hadn’t started an affair with a young artist?

I have a lot of friends, acquaintances, who are excellent musicians and nobody knows them. No journalist will ever write about them. It’s sad, but today’s media scene is like that. You have to create a scandal to get media attention. I learned this rather late in life. (laughs)

What are you planning with Lucie? What future lies in store?

I definitely want to go to America with Lucie. Although I’ve just come back, I have a friend in Las Vegas in California, who wants to quit there and come back to Czechia. So he invites me. He wants to show me Vegas through the eyes of a local who’s been living there for fifty years.

He used to be a drummer, we used to play together. He and his wife, who was a hairstylist and did hair for celebrities, escaped together. But she died recently, so he wants to sell the house and everything else and come back home. So I decided to go visit him with Lucie.

Vegas – the city of sin and gambling. Do you play?

No, I don’t. I’ve never fallen for it. But naturally, if I didn’t play there it would be as though I’d never been there. I’ll take a hundred dollars and definitely play a little bit. Either one-eyed bandit or blackjack.

Do you like shopping?

I basically don’t need anything, so I only buy something if it really hits me in the eye. And I will spend a long time thinking about whether I really should buy it.

So basically a woman has to take care of you …

If somebody gives me good advice that something will look good, I try it on and they are right, then I will buy it.

We haven’t even spoken about your children, yet they haven’t fallen far from the tree!

Yes, Felix is an excellent saxophonist and clarinettist. He mainly does classical music, but also conducts and plays wonderfully. I am delighted that he is continuing my work. And Anička, following her major success in the show Tvoje tvář má známý hlas, has become a highly-sought artist and seems to be doing well both in musicals and in her private life. My children are truly my pride and joy. They turned out well.

I’d like to ask about your current family situation. Is everything the way you’d like, or would you like to change anything?

It definitely isn’t ideal. But I cannot responsibly say what it should be like in order to be ideal. What should happen for all of us to be happy.

Do you think you could all be friends?

I don’t know. But for me, the family isn’t just my wife, but also the children, in particular the children. I don’t have any grudges against anybody in my heart. We are both to blame for what happened. But it happened and it has to be resolved in some way. I think that if we all treat each other decently, then we can live like this until death.

What would you like for your forthcoming birthday?

Peace and tranquillity, above all. To enjoy the pleasures of life. Play tennis, golf, hold somebody by the hand, go for a walk, have a glass of wine. Just normality, the way things should be.

I wish you good health and thank you for the interview.