Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
And Now for Something Totally Different
Yesterday afternoon at Stanford, we recorded an episode of Uncommon Knowledge with former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and her piano teacher, George Barth, a professor of music at the university. I asked Condi and George if classical music still matters. They spent the next 45 minutes proving that it does.
No politics. Just music. Bliss.
Published in Culture
Wonderful! I met Rice last year as she was leaving George’s office.
What’d they play?
Completely different, Peter ;-)
Is it me? The link is not taking me to the Condi video. Would love to hear it.
It looks like a piano.
PR: “Okay. Last coda.”
@Manny The video is not posted yet. We’ll put up a teaser video in the next 24 hours.
What’d they play? Schumann’s Concerto in A-minor (George played the orchestral part) and Beethoven’s “Spring Sonata” for violin and piano (George played the violin part). And they let us tape them working together–stopping, asking each other questions, making suggestions, trying various passages different ways. Just fascinating.
As Blue Yeti explained, we don’t have the show up yet–it’ll take a few days to get it put together on the editing machine–but we’ll put up at least an excerpt or two just as soon as we can.
As a violinist, I’m partial to the violin, and what may be the best violin pieces ever written:
But if I’m going to listen to piano (which I also love), I’ll go with the Hungarian stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXAe-pL4J-g
What a wonderful lady.
If this were a just world, her life (and that of Justice Thomas) would serve as inspiration to every poor, black child in the US.
What a perfect day to drown in beautiful music. Hurry up and post the video, please!
Meantime, two things.
1. Has everyone seen the video duet of Condi and Jenny Oaks Baker performing Amazing Grace? It is a stunning arrangement, though you might be tempted to think the song has been overdone. Careful… on a day like today it could cause spontaneous tears.
I love Condi’s face, it speaks for me:
WATCH:
2. ClassicFM out of London – yeah!
http://www.classicfm.com/
Blue and Peter, thanks. I’ll look for it.
This lady could give lessons in CLASS to MO, & HRC, not that they’d ever be able to learn it in a million years. This is TALENT!
Here’s some brief footage I shot with my phone while we were setting up and Condi and George were rehearsing. Again, this was shot on my phone (hence the talking in the background). The actual footage from the show is much better.