Interesting Zapateado interpretation

September 15, 2015 at 02:41 AM · As we say in Spanish "Oy gevalt"! (OK, actually Yiddish.) If Sarasate were alive he'd be turning over in his grave! ;-)

I'm sorry but by any standards I can think of, classical, country (a lot of which I really love!) that's just - apart from making up her own notes - molto scratchissimo!

BTW in case anyone doesn't know how this piece should go here is one of many good examples:

https://youtu.be/sIvmYMXB7FQ

or this:

https://youtu.be/DUUcWKtoALY

This guy wasn't too shabby either!

https://youtu.be/RLMfODeg6tw

September 15, 2015 at 11:25 AM · Or Joseph Hassid?

On his recording (on a 78rpm belonging to my teacher,) I didn't even realise that the pizzicato notes were alternating l.h. pizz and sharp spiccato, until I heard Perlman's.

September 15, 2015 at 12:22 PM · Nice interpretation Ryan. Not exactly Julliard audition presentation but suited to the occasion.

September 15, 2015 at 01:58 PM · That was disturbing.

September 15, 2015 at 02:42 PM · This may be a rare case where one might be allowed to say "a beautiful woman playing a beautiful piece" witout being flagged?

September 15, 2015 at 03:48 PM · With the way the violin/fiddle was mic'ed, I would be surprise if it didn't sound scratchy unless the sound has been EQ'ed to death and was drowning in reverb.

September 15, 2015 at 06:40 PM · A "wardrobe malfunction" always seemed on the edge of possible outcomes during that performance.

September 15, 2015 at 06:44 PM · edit: post removed - responded to wrong thread.

September 15, 2015 at 10:31 PM · Was that piece by Sarasate ... or SorrySotty (no, not SorrySatie)? It was certainly zapped.

Being from over the pond, I'm not quite sure what was going on. Were they ALL playing the violin - is that part of the Miss America competition these days? What else do they have to do in the competition (I suppose they're still expected to LOOK somewhere approaching beautiful?)?

September 16, 2015 at 03:12 PM · Sad. This poor girl. How embarrassing.

September 16, 2015 at 03:41 PM · It's an obviously bad performance, but the glee in deriding this girl all over the Internet is, frankly, getting on my nerves. Seems like, as a person, she's okay. She's Miss Mississippi, and two weeks after she was named as such she took the controversial (for that state) stand that Mississippi's confederate flag should be put away, it was too hurtful to too many people. Whether you agree with that stand or not, it was a courageous one, in the context of her state's political climate. She has said she plans to go to medical school. Also pretty useful to society.

Many have been holding up Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson as an example of a beauty queen who played violin decently. I can attest that she did, I actually played with her back in the '80s at Disney, she did a solo with us and if I recall, she sat with us in the orchestra for a few numbers as well. It was fine. But does that make her morally superior, as a beauty queen? What does that even mean?

It all just leaves a bad taste for me.

September 16, 2015 at 03:48 PM · Laurie, I don't think anyone was deriding her as a person or as a beauty queen.

I wonder how actually she felt about her performance. She looks pleased with herself, but that could be just because she has to. The missed notes and passages could be just nerves, I suppose.

September 16, 2015 at 03:51 PM · I couldn't get very far. I respect her for putting it out there, and in what I imagine is one of the most unforgiving circumstances possible. Tomorrow is another day, and this isn't the end of the world. I'm going to put my fingers back on my violin and get to practicing.

September 16, 2015 at 04:40 PM · Miss Mississippi (Miss Miss. ??) certainly did better than Mr Universe

September 16, 2015 at 05:12 PM · Seraphim, that is truly frightening.

I'm just guessing that she is extremely good at "keeping it together" and appearing graceful even when everything is going to heck. I sincerely doubt she had no clue that things weren't going well, some of that looked to me like classic righthand nerve-lockup. It looks like she's played since childhood, but if it's not her primary endeavor I can see how she would have a very hard time pulling off a high-pressure live performance like this.

September 16, 2015 at 07:27 PM · Like Adrian, I wasn't deriding her as a person or a beauty queen, but like Christian, I couldn't get very far into her performance. I was reacting purely to a violin performance. Maybe it wasn't nice but there comes a point where a kind of politically correct "I'm OK, you're OK" just doesn't make it.

We're listening to a young adult, not a little child. She is playing an instrument that we all know to be at least as treacherous as it is beautiful. So far, so good. But then she chooses to use it to represent her special skill and she makes a very ill-advised choice of a very demanding piece. She is essentially saying at this phase of the contest "I'm not just a pretty face. Here is a respect-worthy skill." It seems to me that at such a point, while we shouldn't expect another Hilary Hahn, we ought to get a certain fairly professional level even with nerves. And to me, it seemed more a case of being clueless than severe nerves. In fact I was truly impressed with how poised she seemed just before she started to play.

I wish for her sake that she had chosen something much easier that she could have gotten across more successfully. I wish that not only for her sake. In forum like that she is representing classical violin to a popular world.

PS Mr. Universe seems to be saying something as he is playing. Maybe "a-VIOL-derci, Baby!" ;-D

September 16, 2015 at 08:05 PM · Given that Miss America is supposed to be not just a beauty contest, but a talent contest, how well the contestant performs their talent is indeed important. The contestant is not just representing themselves; to a degree they are representing that art form, as well. There will be many viewers out there for whom this performance is their encounter with classical violin, and that is tragic.

I haven't watched the pageant in recent years, but I used to love watching it as a kid, and I remember being impressed by the quality of the music-making of the contestants back in the 1980s. As has already been pointed out, Gretchen Carlson did a bang-up job of a Zigeunerweisen back in 1989.

September 16, 2015 at 08:21 PM · Seraphim - Arnold told me to tell everyone, 'Shouldahh rests ahh for little girlie men! So is tightening yahh bow!'

September 16, 2015 at 08:21 PM · It's clear that Ms. Roberts is an intelligent young lady, but that was a horribly ill-advised choice of a piece. She could have done a creditable performance of a more appropriate piece--Czardas, perhaps.

I don't think she's a bad person but I do think she's a bad violinist, or at the very least a badly advised one. As Lydia said, the talent part matters.

September 16, 2015 at 08:31 PM ·

September 16, 2015 at 08:36 PM · I'm not saying it's a good performance. And it is a little disturbing that the judges would just completely look beyond that. What did other people do for "talent" anyway? It's never exactly apples-to-apples, is it?

September 16, 2015 at 10:03 PM · Arnie mimes a mean fiddle:

September 17, 2015 at 05:10 AM · Hubris is the word. In an online profile, she compares herself to Gretchen Carlson and pats herself on the back for being in the same league. No, just no.

September 17, 2015 at 04:27 PM · I think there is a different perspective on her playing if you view the video with the sound turned off.

July 16, 2016 at 03:02 AM ·