Classical Prudery: Vanessa Mae or Janine Jansen? Why not both?

by Gray on March 6th, 2008

This was going to be an entry about Janine Jansen, the virtuoso violinist reviewed in this article. I was excited by the fact that she seems to be leveraging the power of the web (”…downloads count for 75% of my Vivaldi recording’s sales.”) into supporting her career.

Then this statement caught my eye:

“…while Jansen won’t make a prurient spectacle of herself, we’re reminded that she could (and pull it off, visually, like Mae did) if she wanted to.”

This is apparently in comparison to Vanessa Mae, another concert violinist who has the audacity to blatantly take advantage of the fact that she is a beautiful woman as well as being talented.

Airs on a G-String

Ok, so there aren’t any actual g-strings in evidence on either site, I just couldn’t resist the pun. What there are on both sites are galleries - only a few pictures on Vanessa’s, quite a few more on Janine’s. There is, however, quite a bit more cleavage, skin-tight curves, and phallic imagery with the violin on Janine’s site. Vanessa’s site hardly shows the violin at all, with glamour photographs that certainly have a greater edge to them - the kind of look that would appeal to my 16 year old daughter, for example, and get her to listen to classical music because she would feel some connection to the person playing it (as opposed to, say Itzhak Perlman).

Not that there’s anything wrong with using that imagery - I know that sex sells, and I don’t have a problem with that. But to pretend that somehow Janine is “above” such things and Vanessa’s use of choreography in her videos is “semi-pornographic” is just unrealistic prudery. As any burlesque performer will tell you, almost-seen skin is much more sexy than bare, and by that principle Janine Jansen is making far more use of her looks than Vanessa.

Virtue or Vicissitude in Violinists’ Videos?

Vanessa Mae’s Toccata & Fugue shows the kind of traditional (even in a non-traditional arrangement) style that she is capable of. But let’s view samples of each artist on YouTube, and you tell me: which one is going to draw in the new audience, the younger audience, the MTV generation that classical music so desperately needs? If adding choreography and a different costume than the traditional evening gown will help spread classical music to a wider audience, then let’s have it!

I’m not experienced enough to be able to point at one or the other and say “Yes, she’s obviously better!” But if I can’t, then will the average listener be able to, either? And isn’t there enough room for us to like them both? Perhaps Vanessa’s red-hot videos will be the gateway drug for a new batch of listeners to come to Janine’s. And certainly the men who created the music these women are playing were no paragons of virtue; they were the rock stars of their day, as much into drinking, carousing, and scandal as any metal-head.

To say that there is some virtue in supposedly chaste (but not quite) dress, or that this has any bearing at all on the talent and skill of either artist is a symptom of what I like to call our cultural adolescence, and I wish we would somehow move beyond the giggly embarrassment of a 14 year old boy seeing a flash of nipple and into adult acceptance of the beauty of the human condition in all its forms, whether grinding in skimpy leather or gliding in an off-the shoulder cream silk gown.

b5media.com

Fame or Famine