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Published: Tuesday, 05 November 2024 at 15:37 PM
Musical politicians: 11 great political figures with musical talent to burn
The rock band Ugly Rumours could so nearly have made it big in the early 1970s. Fronted by heartthrob singer and guitarist Tony Blair, the group announced themselves with a debut gig at Corpus Christi College, leading to a further five appearances at bars and junior common rooms across Oxford University.
At that point, however, Ugly Rumours folded, appreciating that they were, in fact, quite rubbish. Those six gigs were ‘probably six too many’, Blair would admit in a TV interview many years later, adding that ‘I always say to people that, if there had been social media around at the time I was at university, there’s no way I would ever have become prime minister.’
If Blair’s wayward musicianship had the potential to stop his political career in its tracks, governor Bill Clinton’s image was probably by no means harmed when he played a saxophone solo on the Arsenio Hall Show on US TV in 1992 – months later, he would be elected as the 42nd president of the United States. Blair and Clinton are just two of a number of world leaders in the course of history who have enjoyed not just listening to music, but actually playing it. Some have enjoyed showing off their skills in public; others have kept them largely to themselves. The competence levels, meanwhile, range from enthusiastic amateur to concert-hall pro.
And so, in a year that has seen a veritable deluge of elections, from India to the United Kingdom and with the biggest of all about to take place in the US, it’s time to look, in chronological order, at some of history’s most musical monarchs, presidents and prime ministers…
History’s most musical politicians
Nero (Emperor of Rome, 54-68 AD): lyrist
Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned, they say. Except that he clearly didn’t, as violins didn’t come onto the scene until some 15 centuries after the Great Fire of Rome in 64AD. But if notions of the notorious emperor wielding the bow are far-fetched, Nero did at least have some sort of musical inclination.
Coins from the era depict him playing the lyre, and his love of the instrument is also described in Cassius Dio’s Roman History, though in none-too-glowing terms. The emperor won every lyre-playing contest, notes the historian, but that was only because everyone else was barred from taking part, Worse, when he accompanied himself singing, he ‘moved his whole audience to laughter and tears at once’.
Cassius Dio even brings Nero’s plucky endeavours into a speech by Boudicca who, leading a revolt hundreds of miles away in chilly Britain, tartly observes that the Romans ‘are slaves to a lyre-player, and a poor one too’.
Frederick the Great (King of Prussia, 1740-86): flautist, composer
In contrast to Nero, the flute-playing Frederick II (‘the Great’) was well received by his audiences. Take, for instance, a description by Charles Burney of a performance in Potsdam in 1772. ‘The concert began by a German flute concerto in which his majesty executed the solo parts with great precision…,’ reported the writer.
‘I was much pleased, and even surprised with the neatness of his execution in the allegros, as well as by his expression and feeling in the adagio.’ The Prussian king took his music seriously as both a player and a composer, surrounding himself with top talent such as fellow composer CPE Bach, flautist Johann Joachim Quantz and soprano Elisabeth Schmeling.
The latter later remembered that ‘He did not blow… like a King, but very well; he had a strong full sound and much virtuosity.’ His own father, however, was a little less charitable. When Frederick William I, ‘the soldier king’, described the young Fred as ‘a flutist and a poet’, it was not intended as a compliment…
Thomas Jefferson (US President, 1801-09): violinist, cellist
‘Nothing is more agreeable, and ornamental, than good music.’ So wrote George Washington, and the first president of the US’s thoughts were echoed by his fellow Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, who described music as ‘the favorite passion of my soul’.
Jefferson, the third US president, would practise the violin and cello for up to three hours a day as a young man, and would regularly participate in concerts while up at college. Though the passing years saw this commitment decline, he continued to keep a collection of violins and often played with his wife Martha, a fine keyboard player, in duet.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski (Prime minister of Poland, 1919): pianist, composer
On the Treaty of Versailles, by which the end of World War I was formally ratified on 29 June 1919, you’ll find the signature of Ignacy Jan Paderewski. The pianist and composer was at the political top table as a result of a remarkable, and rapid, career transition.
Having risen to fame as a phenomenal piano virtuoso, he then used his status to champion the cause of an independent Poland – as a performer, he was seen as standing apart from the various factions involved in Polish politics, plus enjoyed direct personal contact with big hitters including US president Woodrow Wilson.
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So, when independence was duly achieved in November 1918, few eyebrows were raised when the pianist extraordinaire was appointed prime minister soon afterwards. He didn’t remain in post for long, resigning in December 1919 when his talents as a leader were shown to be no match for his skills at the keyboard. From 1922, he returned to doing what he did best: packing out concert halls.
Benito Mussolini (Prime minister of Italy, 1922-43): violinist
Though the auction of valuable violins is rarely headline material, the sale of one particular instrument at Bonhams, London, on 12 May 2014 caused ears to prick up – valued at around £100,000, the early-18th-century Amati was once owned by a certain Benito Mussolini. Photos confirm that the Italian dictator was indeed a keen violinist who, having learnt from boyhood, continued to play as he progressed towards power.
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Unlike his showboating Roman predecessor Nero, however, ‘Il Duce’ kept his activity firmly behind closed doors. Whether he was any good, then, remains a matter of guesswork, though there were certainly musical genes in the family – his fourth son, Romano, would forge a career as a jazz pianist, playing with the likes of Chet Baker and Dizzy Gillespie.
Harry S. Truman (US President, 1945-53): pianist
When learning the piano as a boy, Harry S. Truman was thrilled to be taken to a concert in Kansas City, where he got to meet and be given a brief lesson by the great Paderewski. His enthusiasm for the instrument saw him briefly consider taking it up professionally before deciding his talent fell just a little short.
However, as he instead trod the political path towards the US presidency, pianos would continue to remain his constant companions and he would be regularly photographed or filmed with them. One such occasion, in fact, caused something of a commotion: when, in February 1945, the then vice-president was snapped at the keys of an upright upon which was seductively draped the actress Lauren Bacall, critics complained it was unbecoming of both him and her.
For a more dignified moment, head to YouTube for footage from May 1952, when Truman gives NBC reporter Frank Bourgholtzer a guide to the pianos in the White House. After glowing about the sound of a Steinway, the president plays a few chords before elegantly tinkling out a moment from Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 11.
Richard Nixon (US President, 1969-74): pianist
Truman would gladly show off his piano skills in public… but drew the line at performing a duet with Richard Nixon. When, in 1958, someone suggested the former president and current vice-president could make sweet music together, Nixon was largely in favour. Truman, in contrast, wrote in a letter that ‘the idea of a duet with Nixon is singularly repellent, and my answer to your invitation is, of course, no.’
The rift between the pair, which dated back to a row over an alleged Soviet spy in 1948, was not to be healed on this occasion… but turn the clock forward to March 1969 when, soon after Nixon’s inauguration, a rapprochement of sorts was made.
During a visit to the 84-year-old Truman at his home in Missouri, Nixon presented the local Truman Library with his predecessor’s beloved White House Steinway. A frail Truman declined Nixon’s invitation to play, so the president, who had once performed his own piano concerto on the Tonight Show on TV, sat down and bashed out the Missouri Waltz himself. He later humbly described his rendition as ‘rather amateurish’.
Edward Heath (UK Prime Minister, 1970-74): pianist, conductor
Just like Truman and Nixon, British prime ministers Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher didn’t have a great deal of time for each other or a great deal in common… except, perhaps, a love of music. Both, in their student years, sang in the Oxford Bach Choir and both could once play the piano. But there the similarities stop.
While Thatcher’s keyboard adventures ended at adulthood – ‘I couldn’t bear hearing myself play badly,’ she later told Desert Island Discs – Heath, an organ scholar at Oxford, carried on throughout his political career, installing a Steinway at No. 10 Downing Street when he took office in 1970. And his musical activities went well beyond that.
In 1971, the PM conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in Elgar’s Cockaigne Overture at the Royal Festival Hall, and would continue to wield the baton in his later years, including on a recording called Morning Cloud (the name of his first yacht) with the Black Dyke Mills Band. Though never one to break easily into a smile, Heath made it clear where happiness really lay for him with the title of his 1978 book: Music – A Joy for Life.
Helmut Schmidt (Chancellor of West Germany, 1974-82): pianist
Another politician to enter the recording studio was Helmut Schmidt. In 1981, the West German leader received a phone call asking him if he’d like to come to London to record Mozart’s Concerto for Three Pianos – his fellow piano soloists, he was told, would be the caller himself, Justus Frantz, plus Christoph Eschenbach, all in the company of the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road studios.
Though his duties as chancellor were hardly light, Schmidt agreed to take part, and duly got down to practice. The recording is still available today, as is Schmidt’s later performance of Bach’s Concerto for Four Keyboards alongside Eschenbach, Frantz, Gerhard Oppitz and the Hamburg Philharmonic. Frantz, a close friend, later recalled that the piano-mad Schmidt would try to find time to play every day, often sitting down late at night for an hour-or-so of Bach to help him unwind after a long row of meetings.
Ivo Josipović (President of Croatia, 2010-15): composer
Pop onto any music streaming service and you’ll find a wide range of works by Ivo Josipović, from the Samba da camera, which won him an award from the European Broadcasting Union in 1985, to his opera Lennon, premiered at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb in 2023. In between composing these two works, plus many others, Josipović also served five years as president of Croatia. Indeed, it was while on the campaign trail in 2010 that he first said that he’d write Lennon, which centres on the Beatles star’s late years.
As president, Josipović proved a largely popular figure, and his compositions, which also include the likes of Tuba ludens for tuba and orchestra, are similarly likeable and accessible.
Emmanuel Macron (President of France, 2017–present): pianist
As he sat in the rain and watched the recent Olympics opening ceremony unfold in Paris, Emmanuel Macron must have been heartened by the array of classical musicians on show. In fact, at one stage in his life, the French president may even have dreamed of being one himself, having won a diploma for piano studies at Amiens Conservatoire in his youth.
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Today, Macron admits he has little time to fine tune his piano skills, though says he would one day like to return in earnest to the instrument. In the meantime, it’s tempting to imagine him chatting quavers, clefs and tempo markings whenever he meets Keir Starmer at major summits. As previously reported in BBC Music Magazine, Britain’s new prime minister studied flute at the Guildhall, his recent election making him just the latest in the list of world leaders with a musical trick or two up their sleeves.
Spinning a tune
Politicians and their press teams are often accused of puffery, so it is perhaps appropriate that the most famous spin doctor of them all enjoys spending his free time with cheeks inflated and blowing hard.
Alastair Campbell, who served in a range of head of communications roles at Downing Street from 1997 to 2003, is a keen player of the bagpipes, a hobby that, he explains, has considerably aided his mental health. Though he largely plays for his own pleasure, in 2018 Campbell performed The Skye Boat Song at the funeral of his close friend, the MP Tessa Jowell, playing as he led the coffin out of the church.
White House support acts
Though the Oval Office may not always be occupied by a Jefferson, Truman or Nixon, there have been others in the White House who can supply the chords and arpeggios. For instance, the current secretary of state Antony Blinken has been known to strum a few notes on his guitar. Blinken (below) plays left-handed like Paul McCartney, though, say critics, that is where any comparison begins and ends.
An altogether higher calibre of musician can be found in Condoleezza Rice, who served as secretary of state under George W Bush from 2005-09. After majoring in music, Rice harboured plans to pursue a career as a concert pianist until a stay at the Aspen Music Festival and School convinced her that others possessed a greater talent.
However, she continued to play regularly and, while serving as Bush’s national security advisor in 2002, was invited by Yo-Yo Ma to join him in Brahms’s Violin Sonata in D minor (arranged for cello and piano) at Washington’s Constitution Hall. A huge Brahms and Schumann fan, Rice also played in the former’s Piano Quintet in front of Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 2008.
