[www.wnyc.org]

"Mad About Music" kicks off the New Year by revisiting Secretary of State designate Condoleezza Rice's first appearance on the show.

[Theme music]

Kaplan ... Condi Rice was a piano prodigy at three and a competition winner at age 15. Condoleezza Rice, welcome to "Mad About Music."

Rice Very nice to be with you.

Kaplan So, long before there was geopolitics, there was music. Even your name, Condoleezza, was about music, wasn't it? A variation of con dolcezza which means, of course, "with sweetness", a direction of how to play the music. Tell me about the role music played in your childhood.

Rice Music played a very important role in my childhood. My mother played, my grandmother and my great grandmother all played piano. A couple of them were church musicians, but my grandmother was also a piano teacher and I stayed at my grandmother's house during the day while my parents worked and I would go to the piano and bang at the piano when she taught her students trying to emulate what she was doing with her students. So she said to my mother, let's teach her to play. I was only about three. My mother thought I might be a little young, but my grandmother wanted to try it and as a result I learned to play very, very young. I could read music before I could read. I went through then the kind of normal childhood that with music very much at the center of it, always piano lessons, always the time to practice, and when I was ten, I went to the Birmingham Southern Conservatory of Music – I think I was the first black student to go to that newly-integrated conservatory in Birmingham – and I began to compete in piano at that point. It was then several years later, a couple of years later we moved to Denver and I won a competition there, a young artists' competition regionally young artists' competition playing the Mozart D Minor Piano Concerto , a piece that I still love to this very day.

[Music]

Kaplan The final movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor , one of only two of his 27 concertos in a minor key played by Artur Rubinstein with the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra led by Alfred Wallenstein, a selection of my guest, Condi Rice, who actually won a competition playing that work at age 15. So now it was around age 15 you entered the University of Denver at an extremely young age as a music major. You planned a career as a concert pianist, didn't you? But something changed.

Rice I planned a career as a concert pianist but I realized in my sophomore year, at the end of my sophomore year in college that I was pretty good but not great. I went to one of those Aspen Music Festival summer programs and I met 11-year olds who could play from sight what had taken me all year to learn and I thought I'm maybe going to end up playing piano bar or playing at Nordstrom, but I'm not going to end up playing Carnegie Hall and so I started looking for something else. I took course after course and it was already junior year, so its pretty late to be choosing a major and I fortunately walked into a course in international politics taught by a Soviet specialist, a man named Josef Korbel who was, of course, Madeleine Albright's father, so I have a very firm connection with the former Secretary of State. I really think I found my passion in the study of Russia but, in fact, I continued to be passionate about music, I continued to work at it and to study for quite a long time, taught piano while I was in graduate school and got involved in church choirs, as well, singing with a large Presbyterian church choir in Denver, so music continued to be part of my life.

Kaplan I could say in that sense, that when you decided to give up music, you joined the club of distinguished government officials who earlier in their lives, I guess, went wrong. I'm thinking of former Prime Minister of England Edward Heath, who was an organ major at Oxford and Alan Greenspan graduated Juilliard as a woodwind major. Did you ever regret giving up the music career?

Rice I don't regret giving up the music career because I know that I was probably with my penchant for not practicing as much as I should have and for also not having really prodigious talent, that I was probably not headed where I wanted to be in music. But the great thing about music is that you can love it all of your life, you can pick it up at different phases. I remember when I was about ten I really wanted to quit playing the piano. I had been a child prodigy, now I was ten, there were lots of kids who could play the piano at ten, and my mother said you're not old enough or good enough to make that decision and she was right, I wasn't old enough or good enough, but fortunately, when I made the decision to leave, I was good enough that I could now bring it back into my life and play chamber music and it's a real joy.

Kaplan Now your next selection is a fascinating one to me – Beethoven's oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives . Hardly known, rarely performed – how did you discover that work?

Rice When I was a college student at the University of Denver I was singing with the Montview Boulevard Presbyterian choir, church choir, large 80-voice semi-professional choir and we performed this piece, the Beethoven Christ on the Mount of Olives , and I fell in love with the piece and it isn't a very oft performed oratorio, although a couple of pieces from it are performed fairly regularly. And for me, one of the great moments was when I was in Israel for the first time in August of 2000 standing on the Mount of Olives and as often happens in memory, this great oratorio just comes flooding back and puts it all together for me.

[Music]

Kaplan An excerpt from Beethoven's Christ on the Mount of Olives , performed by choral groups from Stuttgart, led by Helmuth Rilling, a selection of my guest Condoleezza Rice. This is Gilbert Kaplan and we're revisiting soon-to-be Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's earlier appearance on “Mad About Music.” You can learn more about Condoleezza Rice, listen or read a transcript of any of our prior shows over the past four years by just logging on to our website at wnyc.org and then click on “Mad About Music.” When we return, we'll explore why Condoleezza Rice is not drawn to romantic music.

[Station break]

Kaplan This is Gilbert Kaplan back with my guest Condi Rice. Now your selections today are interesting not only for what you've chosen, but what you haven't chosen. They're all by Beethoven, Mozart or Brahms. I read once that you said about Russia that you never felt more at home, more fulfilled, than in my adopted culture, yet today, no Russian composers.

Rice Well, it is true that Russian music has not had the same resonance for me, at least 19 th century Russian music, as have the Germans and the Austrians. I do love Mussorgsky for instance and my two favorite operas are both Mussorgsky: Khovanschina and Boris Godunov . I love the mighty five of Russian music, but I have to admit that the more familiar Russian composers, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky are not of my favorites though, of course, I like some of that. I'm quite a fan of Prokofiev and of some Shostakovich.

Kaplan As you are an expert on Russia you, of course, travel there often and I wonder if during those travels you've had any musical experiences?

Rice Well, I've had a couple of wonderful musical experiences in Russia. One was associated with the German Unification and the performance of the Shostakovich Quartet, which I will never forget -- it was spectacular. It's a great piece; the setting was terrific in the St. Catherine Hall in Moscow, so that was a great experience. The other great experience was hearing Boris Godunov performed at the Bolshoi. Everybody should have the experience of hearing that opera actually performed in Moscow because the Kremlin bells are actually used and those, of course, would have been the bells that coronated the real Boris Godunov.

Kaplan But Brahms you did pick, who is a romantic, but none of the really romantic romantics show up. No Strauss, no Liszt, no Verdi. Do they interest you?

Rice I've always been much more attracted to Brahms, to Schumann, to a certain extent to Schubert. I don't particularly like programmatic music and Liszt, of course, as the father of that School, has never been particularly interesting to me. Brahms someone once described to me as passionate without being sentimental and that's how I think of Brahms and I just love – Brahms is probably my favorite composer at this stage in my life.

Kaplan Passionate without being sentimental. Could that be a description of you?

Rice Oh, now that's a good question. I suppose I'd like to think of myself as passionate about life. I'm certainly passionate about music and I'm passionate about my work, passionate about family and about my faith. I can be sentimental as well, but I prefer my composers pretty straight.

Kaplan You know, I wonder if you have two personalities, the music personality and your regular personality, if I can call it that. I read somewhere that Secretary of State Colin Powell once said you were raised first and foremost to be a lady and media accounts always mention that you're impeccably dressed, which I can testify to today, tidy, and disciplined. But my question is, what happens when you sit down at the keyboard? Is there a different Condi Rice lurking beneath the surface?

Rice When I sit down at the keyboard, I think it's the same Condi Rice, but it's a Condi Rice that has to be really disciplined.

Kaplan Well what about just playing with abandon and disregarding all that tidiness, organization, discipline and just going for it?

Rice Well, one reason that I love Brahms and Mozart is one can't play with abandon. You have to be pretty disciplined. I'm one of those people now if you put it in front of me, I can read it. But if you ask me to play it by ear or with improvisation, I have much harder time, so I guess I'm tidy and disciplined even when I'm playing the piano.

Kaplan Well, let me tackle it from a different point of view. Your next selection, Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Haydn . Instead of the traditional orchestral version you have chosen the original version for two pianos, which frankly I'd never heard of before. But this brings up another aspect of Condi Rice, the executive versus the musician. While at Stanford you undertook certain bold decisions I read and without consulting the faculty in one instance where they thought maybe you should have and when someone asked you why, you said, "I don't do committees." Now duo pianos and chamber music ensembles, I suppose, are the ultimate committees. Now when you play chamber music how does that square with the need to be a team player versus the want to make the decision type person?

Rice Well, it is true that for a long time my ensemble was duo pianos, not playing with chamber music, not playing with string quartets, but I love chamber music and no one has to make a decision, by the way, in a string quartet – the composer has largely made it for and its always a little bit of struggle between the first violinist and the pianist to see who gets to interpret what the composer meant. But I find that chamber music is great social, it's a great way to socialize with people, too. And its very intimate and you become friends with the people with whom you play chamber music. So it's not exactly like being a part of a committee, which is hard work, and it's true I don't do committees very well. I'm an only child, after all, but chamber music is really one of the great experiences in life.

Kaplan And so the give and take of that process is actually something you like?

Rice I love the give and take, I love trying to come to terms with what the music means. I think actually it's sometimes hard for string players to incorporate a piano because if you're not careful the piano can be completely overwhelming.

Kaplan Well, tell us then about the pianos in the Brahms Haydn Variations .

Rice The reason that I love the two piano version of the Brahms Variations on a Theme by Haydn is that I think that the matched timbre of the two pianos, the kind of open sound that you get from that, really works very much better in several of the Variations that Brahms wrote. I would be the first to admit that there are a couple of Variations that are better for the orchestra. But on balance you can hear this tremendous ability of Brahms to use very small intervals, like seconds, when two pianos are playing, because you don't have the effect of the strings, with all due respect to the string players, kind of mushing over the sound. Its much clearer and crisper and I love the two piano version.

[Music]

Kaplan An excerpt from Brahms Variations on a Theme by Haydn performed in the original version for two pianos by Sir Georg Solti and Murray Perahia, a work that has been played by my guest today, soon-to-be Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, a work she selected when she appeared earlier on “Mad About Music.” Now those were two excellent pianists, weren't they? But who are your favorite pianists?

Rice Well, I think my favorite pianist of all time was Artur Rubinstein. I'm also a great fan of Chopin and I think he played; he was the ultimate player of Chopin for me. I'm a great fan of Brendel. I think he's a wonderful pianist. And a young Russian, Evgeny Kissin I really love the energy in his playing. And I've even seen maturity in his playing over the last several years. I first heard him play when he was about 20; I think he had just come here. He really, he's a spectacular talent. I love listening to him.

Kaplan Do you find that you prefer playing solo piano, chamber music or concerto with an orchestra?

Rice I now play almost exclusively chamber music and I have to be selective. I don't have that much time to practice. And I do like the social aspects of playing chamber music. I also am having a great deal of fun exploring the chamber music. Which its something I really had not done before, I didn't know that literature particularly well and there's a lot of great chamber music for piano and strings. Other than that, I think I would prefer to play solo music. I played with orchestras a couple of times and always found it overwhelming.

Kaplan Don't do committees.

Rice Don't do committees -- too much going on.

Kaplan You know, piano playing can, of course, be a real workout and I know you're an exercise fiend. You once said that you do some of your best thinking on a treadmill. Do you also accompany that running to music?

Rice I do when I get on the treadmill I have to do something to get my mind off the fact that I'm droning on a treadmill for 30 minutes and I usually play on the CD pieces that I know, usually pieces that I've played, because I can kind of time my workout to the start of a Scherzo , to know that I ought to run to the end of the Scherzo , or something like that. And so, yes, I use music very much on the treadmill. But my physical trainer, my strength coach at Stanford, came once to a concert that I played and he said, you know, that's every bit as physical playing that piece as anything that I watch with the Stanford football team, so pianists don't often get enough credit for the physical side of playing something like Brahms, which can be quite physically demanding.

Kaplan Well, you bet. Now I don't know whether Beethoven's Seventh Symphony would be a piece you would use to run to, but I know it's one of your favorites, especially the second movement.

Rice I love the Beethoven Seventh . It's my favorite Beethoven symphony and I think Beethoven, of course, was the most, the greatest master at the symphony. I first heard this piece when I was a little girl taking a music appreciation class with my mother who was studying music at the University of Denver in a summer course. And I can remember hearing this piece and my little eyes just getting wider and wider with that great soaring cannon that takes place in the second movement. So I'm a great fan of this piece.

[Music]

Kaplan The second movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony , the Chicago Symphony Orchestra led by Sir Georg Solti, a symphony first heard at age 11 by Condoleezza Rice, soon-to-become Secretary of State; so we are revisiting her earlier appearance on “Mad About Music” and when we return we'll explore whether President Bush shares Condoleezza Rice's passion for classical music.

[Station break]

Kaplan This is Gilbert Kaplan and on “Mad About Music” we're revisiting our earlier show with Condoleezza Rice, recently nominated to become Secretary of State. Now when President Carter was on our very first show, he revealed that music was constantly on at the White House. So I asked Condoleezza Rice if this was still the case.

Rice No, we don't have music constantly on at the White House and it's a good thing. I actually have never been one of those people who could work with music in the background. I get very caught up in what's going on with the music, so only when I'm exercising can I have music as background music.

Kaplan Have you ever discussed music with the President?

Rice The President and I don't have the same musical tastes, I'm afraid. He loves, he does love music. I like country western too, which is what he likes very very much. But he knows that its very important to me and even he asks me once in a while, well, are you playing the piano, because he knows it's a centering experience for me.

Kaplan Well, we've reached your final selection, the Brahms Piano Quintet thought by many to be the masterpiece of his chamber works. The Scherzo which we're going to hear has been described as a convincing mixture of marshal heroics, mysticism and consoling tenderness. I suppose you've played this work also?

Rice I have played this work. I played this work with the Muir String Quartet; the Quartet is headquartered in Boston, in a small house concert in California. The Muir came once a year or so to Stanford and there was always a little concert at a home the night before and I played this piece with them. It is really a terrific piece. But it's a real challenge for the piano.

[Music]

Kaplan The Scherzo from Brahms Piano Quintet in F Minor played by members of the St. Luke's Chamber ensemble with John Browning at the piano, the instrument of my guest Condoleezza Rice who, at age 17, gave up plans for a life as a concert pianist for a career in international affairs. It's interesting, many of your selections today are in the minor key. Is that by chance or do you happen to love minor keys?

Rice I seem to be really drawn to minor keys. Some people would say, well, they're melancholy or they're dark, but I don't think so. I think they're richer and I get a sense when I listen to a minor key that the composer has somehow worked harder at it. It is, it really just attracts me and it's true that most of my favorite pieces tend to be in minor keys.

Kaplan Independent of music, I knew that a few days after our interview, Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to accompany President Bush to meet President Putin of Russia for the first time. Given her vast knowledge of the repertoire, I asked her to choose some ideal music that would best serve as a soundtrack for that meeting. She didn't skip a beat before responding.

Rice "Getting to Know You" would come to mind as a soundtrack for that meeting. I think this is going to be great fun for the two Presidents as I suspect that they'll get along very well. But anything that, in the musical world, would suggest two people getting to know each other, getting to take the temperature a little bit and showing a vision for a peaceful world with a US-Russian relationship that is healthy at its center.

Kaplan So no minor keys?

Rice No minor keys -- we'll go for a major key in this case.

Kaplan Well, we wish you great success as you take on the challenges of being President Bush's principle advisor on national security and perhaps along the way, you'll introduce the President to the wonders of classical music as well. And with that we concluded our show with Condoleezza Rice. But we will return on February 6 th – same time, Sunday evening at 9:00 PM – when we'll present a second hearing of yet another show, one of the most popular shows we've had, featuring award-winning director Mike Nichols. Until then, this is Gilbert Kaplan for “Mad About Music.”

[Credits]

Thanks for posting, Joker. I knew about Rice's musical background but not to this extent.

So that makes Brahms and Bush her two great heroes. Bien étonnés de se trouver ensemble!

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"Music is the frozen tapioca in the ice chest of history."

"Shit!... No shit, awright!"

Perhaps Mr. Bush will introduce her to the wonderful and exciting and challenging world of the roadies working for a rock and roll band...

- Doxa

pity he didnt ask her what she thought of the song Steve Earle wrote for her, "Condi Condi"....

MAybe she replace Chuck.

.

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"Music is the frozen tapioca in the ice chest of history."

"Shit!... No shit, awright!"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-09-25 13:23 by Greg.