Condoleezza Rice Plays Private Piano Recital For The Queen

LONDON — Live from the palace _ Condi Rice on piano!

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice performed in a piano quintet Monday night for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

Rice played Brahms' Op. 34 with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband's wife, Louise, on violin, and three members of the London Symphony Orchestra.

The queen gave Rice an audio recording of the performance as a gift.

Rice is a classically trained pianist who had expressed a wish to play at the palace.

She was making her final trip to Britain before President-elect Barack Obama takes office next month. On Tuesday, she gave a farewell speech to NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

Comments

[rubyjewel]

Is Condi wearing her bathrobe?!?

[sparkal]

3 major world crisis' going on and the economy in a shambles and she plays piano for the queen. Sounds like the same thing when she was shopping for shoes while hurricane Katrina was happening. Somebody needs to get their priorities str8!

[Vere15]

When Condi started out, she certainly was a tool of the Bush-Cheney group, an academic, a musician and an oil executive who seemed unable and unwilling to assert leadership.

Has she gone to school on her experience? I tend to think the way that she handled the Georgian-Russian situation after McCain campaign's Bombo eruptions indicated that she had - unlike most of the rest of the administration.

While it is tragic that she did learn "on the job," I wonder if the loss of that learning and expertise would be equally tragic. So I would actually like to see her continue in some role.

[ICanHasDemocracy]

Condi tickles the ivories while Rome burns....

[VictorLudorum]

Theres hardly another hand to serve for economic advise in the western alliance ..

[alieninvader]

She's an accomplished and talented woman who either has no moral compass or was willing to ignore it for the sake of her career. That being said, this was a nice story.

[EdMuse]

The curse of be Republican. Occasional occurrences of some intellect marred by the lack of a soul.

[OrganOfThought]

LOL

[mcbaby2]

Um...Shoul­dn't she be in India? Republicans and the press would crucify Hillary for this...

[theiccemann]

Um, she can't take a few hours to play for the queen? Geez...

[JamesMo]

Agree! Doesnt she have a job to do?

[Jamchinadian]

In general, the Shrub admin has had a definite slant towards frivolity over substance. Having said that, she and gang have done so much worse it's not worth the ink hitting her on this. Let's take a page out of Barack's book and move on.

[roshni]

Agree - he tends to take a golf swing as he commits other peoples' children to war.

[theiccemann]

I am reading posts of a few envious people, who might be jealous that they can't speak fluent russian (along with many other languages), Has been chosen to be Secretary of State, chosen to be National security advisor, is an established pianist, who has played with people such as Yo Yo Ma, .. and she has done all of this, as a woman... a black woman.

Congratulate her for her accomplishments, as you would want people to congratulate you, for, .. I don't know, .. graduating from high school?

Performing for the queen, is admirable. What else should she do? She is toward the end of her term. Have some fun Condi. Enjoy yourself. Too bad you couldn't be a part of this Obama "All Star Team,' that is emerging.

[ProgressDon]

She was also an enabler of the worst foreign policy fiasco in US history...­..the Iraq war. So she may be a neo-con all star at best.

[JamesMo]

Yep! Agree. Accomplishments!? - thats not just getting the job, it's about actually doing the job - not just playing the piano. Iraq is one of her accomplishments - yeah lets congratulate her on that nightmare!

[OrganOfThought]

Her personal success came with a heavy price. Unfortunately, the price is being paid by other people and not her. The war she helped start cost a million civilian lives, more than 4000 of our American soldier's lives, 60,000 injured soldiers, a trillion dollars and was a major factor in our crumbled economy

But yes, lets celebrate her success !!! Yippiee!!! Anyone that criticizes a successful person is just jealous !!!! Did you forget the system we live in ? We live in a country that believes in Social Darwinism. The ends justify the means and survival of the fittest. She is prominent, wealthy and will have a comfortable life. Her supporters (oil companies) own this country.

[roshni]

I'm really jealous I don't have the blood of thousands of people on my hands.

[ProgressDon]

She plays 'the pipe' for Bush too.

[scouserinlondon]

mmmhhhh...­. barking up the wrong tree there.....­...

[kkuchenb]

I think this is a nice story. Rice is a very talented woman. It's just a shame she wasted her life by hanging around with the wrong people. A lesson to you all, children..­.

[cultkicker]

Now I know what Condi has been doing all these years.... shopping for shoes and practicing the piano. Our tax dollars at work.

[Kaos911]

This is what our tax dollars paid for? She's been just as useless as Bush.

[glorialovelace]

Your tax dollars didn't pay for Condi's piano lessons. And since she was on her way elsewhere, her royal recital was part of a free stopover. Too bad you're in Inst-abit-ch mode, because it is this kind of thing that helps bring down barriers more effectively than threats.

[leeman79]

This was the highlight of her political career. Kinda like W's landing on the mission accomplished carrier. Condi has been a total waste, and completely useless. It would have been nice to see her do a benefit recital in one of our many impoverished cities or towns. I guess it's more important to suck up to prominent figures than to give joy to poor people.

[glorialovelace]

Condi and her group perform in many venues here in the United States. But sucking up to prominent figures is part of what a diplomat does, in case you don't know what the State Department's mission is.

[leeman79]

The state department's mission is to advance and ensure our peace, security, and democracy through effective leadership and diplomacy. It doesn't say anything about kissing *ss for self gratification purposes.

[BlackJAC]

Didn't we fight a war 230+ years ago so we didn't have to do such vaguely racist stuff like this anymore?

[glorialovelace]

How is this r a c i s t at all? This woman has had years and years of piano lessons and it has to be a highlight of her personal career to have offered to play for the Queen and have that offer accepted.

[BlackJAC]

If Condi had been another schlub private citizen like you or I, this wouldn't have drawn any real notice. But she's the fracking Secretary of State, a ranking government official, and she's giving a show for a head of state on an official state visit rather than working out deals!? Rick Berman refused bow to Prince Charles when he went to screen STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT for the Royal Family, so what does it say when a movie/television producer won't supplicate himself before the Queen but the Secretary of State will?

[mdmpo]

That's a nice story. I was hoping for an audio.

[glorialovelace]

There are a couple of brief audios at:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5272739.ece

and

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/12/

[BannedInBoston]

There you go. Can Hillary Clinton do that?

[ProgressDon]

That is sooooo in the job requirement

[JamesMo]

Probably not - but I prefer my Secretary of State to actually be able to do the job as opposed to entertaining Queens on the piano.

Why doesnt she do a tour of Iraq to entertain the troops and get a first hand view of what she is responsible for!

[glorialovelace]

Condi Rice has visited Iraq many many times, in case you've been in a coma for the past four years.