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3 times Ugh for Janine Jansen?

October 23, 2005 at 11:13 PM

Some puritan people reacted negatively to 4 foto’s of Linda Brava. But it is a reality of how some violinists promote themselves, just like Vanessa Mae did. On violin discussion I have asked the questions about the websites of Janine Jansen and Liza Ferschtman www.lizaferschtman.com (I haerd her playing Haydn 1 today by the way). Someone had to puke of it. Here I show you how Janine promotes herself on her website (she is a daughter of a professional organ player of a protestant church). This doesn’t give consternation or negative reactions in Holland, apart of violinist Isabelle van Keulen who found this too sexy promotion for a violinist. She goes farther than those 4 foto’s of Linda Brava. But because of this promotionreality of some violinists (by recordcompanies?, as Isabelle van Keulen supposed), I show you 2 foto’s of her website www.janinejansen.com and the foto on her first cd in white (first cover was in (too?)decent red dress of the same cd):



yes, we shouldn't really promote sex as a promotion tool, but really, if they didn't play well, they wouldn't have a recording contract would they?
Personally, I don't see too much wrong with those photos - they look like clothes that any normal person would wear. Yes, they expose a bit of the breast, but does it matter? Some people show a lot more than that.
Personally, I think she's a stunningly beautiful young woman and those first two shots are extremely good images that capture a wonderful mood. As much as we might wish all violinists were judged purely on their playing, the simple fact of life is that sex sells - live with it.

I have her 4 Seasons CD and while it has it's faults with the playing at times sounding somewhat harsh and too fast, I enjoy it for it's different interpretation.

Neil

Well, the only way that a violinist can truely be successful is if they are a good player. If they are a good artist, it helps if they have a noticable way of promoting themselves.
These pictures aren't going to be thought of as offensive, but to me in a way they're more offensive than the previous group because this type tries to portray the woman as inaccessible, to men and women, to create an idol. The other group just tries to titillate (though not really - it's just a caricature), but this type tries to intimidate and upset in a socially acceptable way. I know a bit about photography as a marketing tool.

You'd find a lot more negative reaction to this kind of thing in Britain and America than in Europe, especially Holland. People really should try to understand why they think the things they do and how it compares to thought elsewhere. The differences are vast.

Bram, please...stop posting pictures of women that are dressed like that!
Yes, Janine is more attractive than the Finn you showed previously. She seems more natural (well, it's all illusion--she doen't have peroxide in her hair, but she surely has make-up). Not an inherent difference from a moral point of view--a difference in taste and connotation. (But to each his own--some like the peroxide look!)

The difference is one more of taste. The Finn was going for that p*rn look (posing for Playboy & c.) which is a cheezy look. Janine is going for the look that is beautiful but "tasteful." We know nothing of their personalities or playing from these photos. They could easily be opposite of the connotations that we each individually infer.

I reject the idea that skin, and showing it, is inherently sinful. This is a distortion of Christian history & doctrine. Thoughts can be sinful, but this is not the fault of the person being looked at...it is the fault of the person doing the viewing. We were all born with bodies and unless we walk around wearing cardboard cylinders, our shapes are going to show!

Were our grandparents sinning when they nursed their babies? I don't think so! And they showed a lot more "skin" in the process. (I say grandmothers merely because today, with only a few rare exceptions, mothers all feed their children bottled crap and are made to feel ashamed of their bodies and "indecent" in the act of nursing--a sad result of the twisting of Christian doctrine).

The problem with the p*rn look is that it is associated with, well, p*rn! Janine is wearing a beautiful dress, and wearing it well. It isn't merely the "skin" that makes the photos attractive.

But as Ben & Neil say, the proof is really in the music.

Here I show you how Janine promotes herself on her website (she is a daughter of a professional organ player of a protestant church).

Oh, those wacky Dutch protestants. I'm curious, do you write these blogs directly, or put them through babblefish?

Regardless, many women (and soem men) are going to find these cheesecake posts offensive.

There are plenty of photos out there of J. Jansen actually playing the violin :-)

http://www.pixagogo.com/9200445213

I'm a young vioinist starting a s a professional in britain..I am also christian. I look at endless photos of orchestras full of frumpy musicians and just feel slightly depressed about the rest of my life.
It's not just her beauty, but the fact that she takes care of herself..I really don't agree that it's necessary to wear ugly clothes and 'let yourself go' to be taken seriously as a musician or a religious person.
Most likely, people assume you're in that business cos you wouldn't succeed at anything more glamourous.
So Cheers for Janine!
I really admire her violin playing, by the way
Gee, now you guys got me wondering if my blog portrait is too conservative-Christian-frumpy. I might get more readers if I spice it up a bit.

..Or less, now that I think about it. Ha!

If I had a vote I'd go for the orange dress photo without the jacket, cropped into a close-up. You make this chick look like a wicked stepsister.
It's true that sexy photos are used -- successfully -- to sell almost everything. That is very, very different from our grandmothers (not our grandparents) nursing their babies. My first reaction when I saw the photos was: With a body like that, who needs musical talent?
Ha, Jim, with that goofy smile, I couldn't intimidate a flea. :P

I think if I decided to be famous, I would bypass the whole sex thing and put some tasty looking food on the cover. Food is universally appealing to men, women, and children alike--cross-denominational, cross-cultural, worldwide. I'm thinking coffee. Everyone drinks coffee. Even kids in Mexico drink coffee.

On the other hand, she knows how to accept compliments much better.

Interesting you mention food. Closely related. Watch a commercial for a "sinful dessert." And I recoil from Bon Appetit magazine covers like Carly recoils from leather.

Ok, but what about the playing capacities and the repertoirechoice of the 2 violinists Linda Brava and Janine Jansen? (I try to break the record of most reactions on 1 entry so therefore here a reaction and not on the former one of Brava [9] till now) If you have Window Media Player, you can hear fragments of a cd of Lina Brava:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000026D4C/qid=/br=1-/ref=br_lf_m_//102-2598052-8965742?v=glance&s=music&n=465176

1. Salut D'amour (Liebesgruss), Op.12 Listen
Listen Listen
Listen

2. Berceuse, Op.16 Listen
Listen Listen
Listen

3. Rondino, Op.81, No.2 Listen
Listen Listen
Listen

4. Ave Maria Listen
Listen Listen
Listen

5. I. Allegro Molto Ed Appassionato Listen
Listen Listen
Listen

6. II. Allegretto Espressivo Alla Romanza - Allegro Molto - Tempo I Listen
Listen Listen

7. III. Allegro Animato Listen
Listen Listen

8. Humoreske I, Op.87, No.1 Listen
Listen Listen

9. Cantabile (Kompositionen Fur Gitarre Und Streichinstrumente, 1. Serie, No. 8) Listen
Listen Listen

10. Meditation (Thais) Listen
Listen Listen

11. Romance, Op.78, No.2 Listen
Listen Listen

12. Marche Miniature Viennoise Listen
Listen Listen

On this CD:

1. Salut d'amour for piano or orchestra, Op. 12
Composed by Edward Elgar
Performed by John Lenehan, Linda Brava

2. Berceuse, for violin & piano (or orchestra) in D Major, Op. 16
Composed by Gabriel Faure
Performed by John Lenehan, Linda Brava

3. Pieces (5), for violin & piano, Op 81
Composed by Jean Sibelius
Performed by John Lenehan, Linda Brava

4. Ave Maria for voice & orchestra (or piano) (after Bach)
Composed by Charles Gounod
Performed by John Lenehan, Linda Brava

5. Sonata for violin & piano No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 45
Composed by Edvard Grieg
Performed by John Lenehan, Linda Brava

6. Humoresques (2), for violin & orchestra, Op. 87b No. 1
Composed by Jean Sibelius
Performed by John Lenehan, Linda Brava

7. Sonata for violin & guitar No. 8 Cantabile
Composed by Niccolo Paganini
Performed by John Lenehan, Linda Brava

8. Thais, opera Méditation
Composed by Jules Massenet
Performed by John Lenehan, Linda Brava

9. Pieces (4), for violin & piano, Op. 78
Composed by Jean Sibelius
Performed by John Lenehan, Linda Brava

10. Marche Miniature Viennoise for violin & piano
Composed by Fritz Kreisler
Performed by John Lenehan, Linda Brava

If you have Real One Player, you can hear fragments of her cd by clicking audiotracks on her first cd and 4 seasons cd. http://www.janinejansen.com/music/index.html
Click track titles for audioclips

Concerto No. 1 "La primavera". RV269 (Spring)
Movt 1 Allegro

Movt 2 Largo

Movt 3 Allegro

Concerto No.2 "L’estate", RV315 (Summer)
Movt 1 Allegro non molto

Movt 2 Adagio - Presto

Movt 3 Presto

Concerto No.3 "L'autunno" RV293 (Autumn)
Movt 1 Allegro

Movt 2 Adagio molto

Movt 3 Allegro

Concerto No.4 "L’inverno", RV297 (Winter)
Movt 1 Allegro non molto

Movt 2 Largo

Movt 3 Allegro

Click track titles for audioclips
1 Danse russe
Tchaikovsky
Swan Lake
2 Nocturne
Khachaturian
Masquerade Suite
3 Havanaise, op.83
Saint-Saëns
4 Introduction et Rondo capriccioso, op.28
Saint-Saëns
5 Romance
Shostakovich
The Gadfly Suite
6 Schindler’s List - Main Theme
John Williams
7 The Lark Ascending
Vaughan Williams
8 Tzigane
Ravel
Janine Jansen violin: Stradivarius “Barrere” 1727
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Barry Wordsworth

OK, so let the comparisons begin!

Linda Lampenius, Hott Violin Chik, -vs- Joshua Bell, Hott Violin Studd:

Get Josh's "Marche miniature viennoise" here:

http://tinyurl.com/7k49p

or here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00000426U/qid=1130264095/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/103-7977956-6999034?v=glance&s=classical

Scroll down and listen to the sample.

then go to Linda's version:

http://tinyurl.com/8exvc

(scroll down to find her recording of Marche...)

I think you female skeptics may (or may not) be pleasantly (or unpleasantly) surprised at Linda's (or Joshua's) skill and musicianship (or lack thereof).

Let the games begin!

I have listened to both samples and although I am only an amateur and not a specialist, Joshua played it smoother and Linda more staccato and with more pause, but as a professional. The reason I like types like Linda Brava or André Rieu is that they can contact and attrack in their way people to classical music, who normally never would visit a concerthall or buy a classical cd. Perhaps a truckdriver or a metallabourer (like my colleague’s in our machinefactory), who has a lot of cd’s of hard-rockgroup ZZ-top and buys a lot of Playboys, will buy a cd of Linda Brava. Because of Playboy he knows her and of course he had never heard of Joshua Bell or Vadim Repin or Hilary Hahn. Linda Brava looks more like a Playmatetype and a wife of a truckdriver from the lower class, who is not educated at home with classical music and Janine Jansen is more a classical type from the higher classes, who is educated with classical music, who poses not so daring or in the way Linda does, “like a hooker”. I don’t think Janine Jansen will ever will pose for Playboy, although her aim is to attrack an as broad as possible public to classical music, like André Rieu who said that there are coming people to his concerts, who had never have seen a violin in real and he hopes that one day they also gonna listen to “heavier” stuff like Dvorak or Mozart, the serious music he had played in a serious orchestra, before he began his commercial successfull ¾ bar orchestra (easier music for a broader public, even when they were not educated with classical music). I thought that on 1 cd Rieu has recorded a slow part of a Mozart violinconcerto.
Linda Brava and Andre Rieu do NOT attract people to classical music for two reasons:
1) What they do is not classical music but, at best, classical lite. Cheezy, with the profundity of a fortune cookie, the emotional depth of a concussed lemming, and the technical command of an intermediate beginner lacking a discerning ear.
2) Those who buy their output do so for non-musical reasons. They then have no reason to buy actual musicians' output as their visual and voyeuristic fetishes have been sated by their "idols". In short, a Vanessa Mae, or Linda Brava, or Andre Rieu fan is not generally to be found at other violinists' concerts. For which, as one of those other violinists, I AM PROFOUNDLY GRATEFUL!