Posted on 06/13/2005 5:35:39 AM PDT by tjwmason
Condoleezza Rice, the American Secretary of State, is to play the piano at a charity concert in Washington. The audience is in for a treat: the media hail any public figure who can fumble a few notes of Chopin as a "concert-level pianist", but in Dr Rice's case it is true.
She is good enough to have accompanied cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Brahms's D Minor Sonata, which is beyond the reach of all but the most technically adept amateur. But what else do we expect of a woman who, in addition to speaking several languages, is a wonderful figure skater?
Politicians who play the piano tend to confirm one's perceptions of them. The German chancellor Helmut Schmidt could dash off a Mozart concerto with impressively few wrong notes. Music lovers still cringe, however, when reminded of a leaden and error-strewn performance of Mozart's K331 that Edward Heath unwisely performed on television in the 1970s.
Richard Nixon and his Vice-President, Spiro Agnew, were both schmaltzy pianists who, performing a duet at a private dinner, displayed characteristic sensitivity: the double-act involved Agnew assuming a comic "darkie" voice. Harry Truman was a better pianist than Nixon, but typically modest: he once claimed that Stalin would only sign the Potsdam Agreement if he would stop playing.
Like Dr Rice, Truman considered making music his career. Unlike her, however, he did not have Carnegie Hall in mind. "My choice was between being a piano-player in a whorehouse or becoming a politician," he explained. "To tell the truth, there's hardly any difference."
And I couldn't help but laugh at the Truman quote.
A very Nero-like performance.
"My choice was between being a piano-player in a whorehouse or becoming a politician," he explained. "To tell the truth, there's hardly any difference."
ROTFLMAO!
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