Pires takes a fall
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"he Portuguese pianist, who is 77, was due to close the Riga Jūrmala Festival tonight but suffered a bad fall earlier in the day. She is now in hospital.
Here’s our eyewitness report:
Maria Joao Pires was due to perform a recital as the closing concert of the Riga Jūrmala Festival this evening at the Latvian National Opera. At the start of the performance, Martin Engstroem and executive director Zane Čulkstena came out to announce that Joao Pires suffered a fall that afternoon on the streets of Riga – she’s now in the hospital recovering (the two directors described it as “rather serious”). Mao Fujita subbed in at the last moment, having performed twice already in the festival (a solo recital and accompanying Marc Bouchkov). It appears Fujita largely repeated his program from the day before. "
