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The song of the piano man
Text by Jonathan Phillips When it comes to wining and dining, they know the score "When I first got into it, I thought it would be something like The Fabulous Baker Boys," Phil Jones recalls. The 39-year-old pianist is taking a break from the keyboard of the August Forster in the dining room of Prague's Don Giovanni restaurant. "I thought there would be glamorous women -- who looked remarkably like Michelle Pfeifer -- draping themselves over the piano very seductively," he says. "That has never, ever once happened." A kiss is just a kiss, as the song goes. Nonetheless, the romance is so thick at Don Giovanni you could cut it with a knife. Amber oil lamps glow on the room's dainty white and pink tables. At the upright piano, Jones' sleeves flap at his wrists as he works the ivories, and his trouser cuffs bounce in time with the music as he pumps the pedals in his ...brown work boots? This is, after all, work for the smooth-talking Welshman, not a fantasy. Musicians such as Jones are as essential to romantic dining as, well, wine and roses. But it's not always a sweetheart gig. Jones came to Prague after what he calls "a disastrous stint" playing piano for a ballet company in France. Currently a translator by day and a mood-setter by night, Jones says, "What I'm doing is just producing a nice kind of musical wallpaper." But even putting up wallpaper has its moments, especially after a long day of translating. "It can be refreshing, and it can also be knackering," Jones says. "It just depends on how I'm feeling and how many beers I've got inside me." La dolce vita If music be the food of love, it's thanks to two gentlemen from Verona. To further compound the Shakespearean metaphor, Don Giovanni owners Avelino and Nicola Sorgato hail from the Montague side of town. But if Romeo and Juliet's families couldn't learn to love at the Old Town restaurant, then a plague on both their houses. Dressed in his customary suit and tie, Avelino meanders through the dining room, checking on his guests like a doting father on his children. He's the kind of Italian that likes to touch, putting his hand on your shoulder when he asks about the food, the wine or the music. Last year, one of those shoulders belonged to American recording artist Bruce Springsteen. Avelino chatted with him and convinced the "Bard of the Working Classes" to take a shot on Don Giovanni's piano. Springsteen tickled the ivories while the Sorgatos accompanied him, singing a few old favorites. "If my father is anything, he is not shy," Nicola says, recalling the night. "Music is the soundtrack of life," Nicola says. And that's why they call in a piano player every evening Wednesday through Saturday. But where do they find the cast to fill these roles? The answer is 25 years old and wears a ponytail. Jakub Mejsnar began his venture in the music business just after the Velvet Revolution when he hitched a piano to the back of his Skoda and started playing in Prague's public squares. Piano on Wheels soon gave way to Agentura Mejsnar in 1996, when he began to supply piano players to hotels and restaurants around the city. Today, with the help of his brother Jiri, Mejsnar offers everything from electronic equipment to tap dancers and strippers to ensure that a special occasion turns out just right. Even with his busy schedule, Mejsnar still finds time to search the local scene for talent. "It's like when you are fishing," he says. "You just throw out the line and wait to see what you'll catch." There's a place for us Petr Malinek, 29, made his catch while playing at Don Giovanni. Lenka Nemeckova, an energetic 22-year-old, was working as an interpreter for the wait staff when she succumbed to the pianist's charms. She doesn't normally go for piano players, however. "Musicians most of the time look like lunatics," she says with a laugh. Her soft-spoken Petr doesn't make for much of a lunatic. He fills his days composing music that combines both electronic and more traditional instruments, while Nemeckova writes the lyrics and does the singing. Malinek's work in the piano bars helps to buy the instruments. While patient with his lifestyle, Nemeckova admits that playing Juliet to his Romeo can have its pitfalls. "It's quite hard because sometimes I don't see him all day, and he'll have a concert at night. Then he'll come home and want me to cook," she says. "But he makes it up to me on the weekends." Although he concentrates mostly on composing, Malinek says that he likes what he adds to the bar. "The music really affects the customers, whether they absorb it or not," he says. Pavel Pert is another pianist doing double duty. A teacher at the Prague Conservatory by day, the relaxed 51-year-old is known by night for whistling through the lyrics he can't remember. He's also notorious for bringing the house down with sing-alongs. "It's an incredibly beautiful feeling. When people are responding and singing along, it makes my day." With her stunning green eyes, Majka Nozova has plenty of men trying to make her day as she burns through the scales. "My colleagues used to tell me that I'd have it really easy, because a musician with breasts has an easy job," she says. However, Nozova has found it quite the opposite, having to prove her skills and dispel certain myths about blondes. "The first time I go somewhere, they say 'Oh my God -- you're a woman. Are you playing here?' " Unlike the men in this business, she has to worry about her many admirers: "You must be ready for everything. When a person approaches me with those loving looks, I must keep calm and take it as it is." With Nozova at the piano, the staff of Don Giovanni have had to assist a few "socially tired" (read: drunk) lonely hearts away from the August Forster and back to the bar for a friendly talk. So while not every love-struck Romeo finds his Juliet --or Michelle Pfeifer -- at Don Giovanni's, he can at least sit back and enjoy the soundtrack. "It's an incredibly beautiful feeling," says Pavel Pert of his work delighting diners -- and bringing the house down -- at Don Giovanni. "When people are responding and singing along, it makes my day."
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