Washington ? National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, more accustomed to briefing President Bush on world crises, gave him instead a flawless performance of Brahms at Monday’s presentation of the National Medals of Arts and National Humanities Medals.

In a long black ballgown, the accomplished but still amateur pianist risked a bit of a crisis herself by accompanying world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma in the slow movement of Brahms’ violin sonata in D minor.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma performs with U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, on the piano, during the National Endowment for the Arts National Medal of Arts Awards ceremony at Constitution Hall in Washington. A variety of artists, writers and groups were honored Monday night.

An approving Ma insisted afterward that Rice, who began playing the piano at age 3 1/2, take several bows to a standing ovation and then he led her across the Constitution Hall stage for a congratulatory kiss from the president.

Spokeswoman Anna Perez said that Rice had, earlier in the day, squeezed some rehearsal time with Ma in between national security meetings “and while talking to Putin,” senior White House adviser Karl Rove chimed in playfully.

Rice and Ma performed at the close of a ceremony in which the president and first lady Laura Bush awarded national medals to Ma and 15 other artists and writers. They were:

The Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation; Hispanic writer Rudolfo Anaya; country music legend Johnny Cash; actor and director Kirk Douglas; pioneer “color field” painter Helen Frankenthaler; modern dance educator Judith Jamison; comedy director Mike Nichols; Jose Cisneros, illustrator of America’s southwest; psychiatrist Robert Coles; literacy advocate Sharon Darling; historian and writer William Manchester; the National Trust for Historic Preservation; Richard Peck, novelist for young readers; musicologist Eileen Jackson Southern; and southern novelist Tom Wolfe.