|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
67.188.250.219
"Not so!" says the Telegraph, which headlines "Sex is a vital ingredient of musical success". (Link below)
Are some of these babe violinists today being just a little too coy? ("Who? Me? My looks didn't have anything to do with my career!")
OTOH, my wife says she just became a big fan of Nicola on the basis of this latest pronouncement!
Follow Ups:
The current roster of babe musicians can play their a$$e$ off. Their looks have nothing to do with their success. If you can't play, no one's gonna pay.
Prove me wrong. Can any of you anti-babe people please name a current babe who can't play, but is having a successful classical music career by dazzling concert goers with her good looks to the point that they ignore her inability to perform?
I often suspect that the ones who are the most vehemently anti-babe are actually the ones who are the most affected by their hotness.
Ida Haendel (no glamor puss, either) said that she wanted to laugh when she first saw Neveu, who was apparently rather gawky.Or for that matter, any violinist over 40 who's not as well-preserved as Anne-Sophie.
Edits: 04/03/14
This is all just IMHO, but frankly, I don't think that the Neveu Sibelius Concerto recording is competitive anymore. (Her Brahms holds its own a bit better.) That last movement is SO slow! This seems to be a work where we can safely move on and relegate the Neveu recording to special "historical study" status.
As I posted here in 2011:
" I recently re-listened to the famous old Ginette Neveu performance [of the Sibelius Concerto] on EMI, and it didn't hold up too well for me: intensity levels were not nearly as high [as on a number of newer recordings] and the old recording technology was not kind to her tone."
Looks have never not mattered, but the glamor of performers is being promoted so hard these days that I have to wonder if just as talented but merely presentable performers simply get discouraged.
We may have discussed this before, but it's true not only in music. Next promotion at the office? Pay increase? I've read about studies showing that, everything else being equal, the better looking people tend to get an unequally large proportion of the perks in life. In a way, this situation is actually more understandable with music, since there IS a "show business" aspect to it.
that ugly stars are better performers :)...I am not certain i buy it.
dee
;-D
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.
quote by Kurt Vonnegut
You must mean Frederic Chopin, Niccolo Paganini, Anton Rubinstein, Sergei Rachmaninov, Wanda Landowska, George Szell, Clara Haskil, Birgit Nilsson, Mischa Maisky, Angela Hewitt, Lief Ove Andsnes, Lang Lang...I believe you are right.
Want to re-think that one?
You think Angela Hewitt is ugly? Seriously, you have no business discussing female beauty, sex appeal or hawtness.
.
for that matter.
I've read that her career was derailed when she refused to be Walter Legge's mistress. I've also read that Anne Sophie Mutter was a bit more willing to put her good looks to use. But all that is just gossip. The more likely truth is, some musicians, talented as they may be, do not have the personality to be stars. And those who are not stars are a lot less likely to be in demand as soloists.
can you begin to imagine how it must have been back in those days, based on what we know now?
Man, you've got some high standards! I don't think Martzy was bad at all! ;-)
SARCASM
1: a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain
2:
a : a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual
b : the use or language of sarcasm
I think all this emphasis on sexiness cheapens and demeans the performers. Nicola is right that only her musical acumen should matter when it comes to assessing her talent but then she appears in a picture holding her violin while wearing a tight dress with a significant portion of her anatomy hanging out of it. How are we supposed to take her seriously?Perhaps this is why female artists in general were not taken seriously until very recently (and apparently the Vienna Philharmonic still does not take female artists seriously). In this climate, if I were a female artist, I would avoid playing to the galleries.
Edits: 04/03/14
"...How are we supposed to take her seriously?..."
By listening to her and making judgments based on how she plays.
Why cant they take their penises out of their heads and leave it where it belongs. Why would the looks of a person effect their performance. She could be naked on stage i do not care, if she manages to make me close my eyes, listen to the music and make all the little hairs on my neck stand up that is all that matters, and I will take her just as seriously like the old dude with the two canes. Now if she puts down the fiddle and stands in front of me naked, that elicits a totally different reaction.
dee
;-D
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.
quote by Kurt Vonnegut
Are we selling music or body parts?Your response reveals a sexist double standard. Since you brought it up, imagine how offended male artists would be if their music was marketed using crotch shots or images of the men bulging out of skimpy garments.
If that is not appropriate or acceptable for marketing male artists then why is it acceptable for female artists?
Edits: 04/03/14 04/04/14 04/04/14
"...imagine how offended male artists would be if their music was marketed using crotch shots or images of the men bulging out of skimpy garments."
nt
".....she appears in a picture holding her violin while wearing a tight dress with a significant portion of her anatomy hanging out of it. How are we supposed to take her seriously?"
Quite right, she should wear woollen thermal underwear and eat up her porridge. What was she thinking....
There are a lot of "sexy" musicians. But only a select few can bring the music, to where the music in itself can be appreciated.It just so happens that Nicola happens to be amongst that select few. She's one of only few violinists, sexy or not, who can send me reeling to the music.
Edits: 04/02/14
but the marketing thereof can certainly be laden with sex appeal. Maybe
this woman should wear a burka for her publicity shots ...
On the other hand, Wanda on a bearskin makes me think of Angelica Huston asking Jack if he wants to do it on the oriental.
I wonder if they thought of "sex" in a slightly more wholistic manner 200 years ago? Yes, this could be a possibility. Despite the many social barriers and other problems that they struggled with back in those days...All I know is that our narrow, mechanistic, and fetishistic way of looking at sex can be a real drag sometimes. Corporate collectivism creates a wide range of undesirable side-effects.
Edits: 04/02/14 04/03/14
all what is sexy and sex is not a new invention :)...Do we have to go back to the indians? Remember that little piece of sacred writing the Kama Sutra, Marquis de Sade died in 1814, and Boccaccio in 1375...there are writings over human history that were cherished by the overacting imagination :).
dee
;-D
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.
quote by Kurt Vonnegut
... what was written and sung about "sex" in the past is part of what makes me think we might be perverts.
Edits: 04/03/14
Have PR pics really changed all that much in a century? I don't know if she'd have made the "babe" cutoff, but...
No skeletons on a tin roof there.
Me and a previous girlfriend who was a classical pianist....
Me: You look really attractive
Her: That's right, I'm just a body to you. I have a mind as well, you know.
Me: I've always admired your mind
Her: What, don't you think I'm sexy then?
hardly anything to do with each other.
NB : Chris I will post about the Jennifer Pike Sibelius CD later.
Of course, classical music has always had its "babes" who generated sparks with their looks and/or charisma. But in days of yore it was mainly opera stars, since nearly all the instrumentalists were men. Franz Liszt and Eugene Ysaye had star power, as did the young Van Cliburn (alas, he was a quiet, private man and also gay, and so ultimately unable to meet his era's requirements for glamor and stardom).
But call me a kook, imo there is something exciting about someone ugly as sin, old as Methuselah, or just plain ordinary looking, walking out on stage and making magic happen. A babe who walks out in a tight, skimpy outfit has a tall order to back that entrance up with music, and would seem rather silly if not pathetic if she couldn't do it.
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: