The spiritual home of chamber music

Brahms: The Piano Quartets Opp. 25, 26 and 60; Isaac Stern, violin; Jaime Laredo, viola; Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Emanuel Ax, piano

“The President’s Own” United States Marine Band annually presents a chamber music series. As far as a season is concerned, the first three chamber recitals typically occur on three consecutive Sunday afternoons during the month of October. The other five or six performances occur at various times from January through May. Performances occur in the state-of-the-art John Philip Sousa Band Hall at the Marine Barracks Annex and Band Support Facility near the historic Marine Barracks at Eighth and I in southeast Washington, DC.

When I played with the “The President’s Own”, we performed chamber music at the Coolidge Auditorium in the Library of Congress and in the Auditorium at the National Academy of Sciences building near the Lincoln Memorial. Although I enjoyed the acoustics at the National Academy of Sciences, playing at the Coolidge Auditorium was like playing in and on a little piece of history. The musically rich history of performances in this place go back to 1933.

Ms. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (no relation to the President) struck a partnership with the Library of Congress in order to construct a performance venue specifically for the performance of chamber music. Ms Coolidge had enjoyed a career as a pianist that spanned the centuries when she inherited a sizable estate from her parents. She made it her mission to invest her fortune into the promotion of chamber music, a mission, by the way, that she carried out until her death at the age of ninety in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1953.

The construction of the Coolidge Auditorium probably accounted for a considerable portion of her investments. But through the establishment of the Coolidge Foundation, the following composers received commissions for compositions to be played in “her” auditorium:

Bela Bartok for his String Quartet No. 5

Benjamin Britten for his String Quartet No. 1

Sergei Prokofiev for his String Quartet No. 1

Igor Stravinsky for Apollon Musagete

Francis Poulenc for his Flute Sonata

Aaron Copland for Appalachian Spring

My friend, fellow Marine Band member and cellist Nat C. approached me one day to ask, “You like Brahms, don’t you?” Yup. “Well, I think that we should get a group together to play the Brahms G Minor Piano Quartet. What d’you say?” Well, I don’t know. Is it any good? After a thirty-second choking episode, he responded with, “Do you mean to say … How did you ever … I can’t believe that … You call yourself a … You see, this here is exactly why … Of all the … When I think of the times that … Well, this is … this is just unbelievable.” So, it’s good then? “*loud sigh* (pause) (scowl) Yes.” Then, let’s do it. Our performance of Piano Quartet No. 1 by Johannes Brahms in Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress represented some of the greatest fun that I had during my time in “The President’s Own”.

Credits: To cellist Nat C., violist Lisa P., and Claudia C., for soaking in a hot tub of Brahms with me. It was my pleasure to romp through a masterwork like this with masters like you. Thank you. I had a blast.