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http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y3cZylrvjY

Enticing. (Gershwin)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qxREKrnlNIs

Intoxicating. (Mendelssohn)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nZSPtW4seyQ

Thrilling. (Liszt)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rejQpggB9bE

Hot. (trio)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XDRViyBLZDU

Telescopic Telemann I believe.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IP_hHHhD0K4

Smooth and silky. (random)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DgTvZ9_RzBs

Simply beautiful. (Beethoven)

If that's not enough, try this -

http://www.dasdc.net/forum/download.php?id=1182

True beauty.

Thanks! Each a Bella Pianista

Wonder why the piano was turned the wrong way at the 2005 Texas Jr-Miss event?
Did you even notice?

When you say "true beauty" are you referring to the performers or the music?

I hate to be a spoil sport.. but none of the music is very good...

Daniel

Please tell me that wasn't the Mendelssohn concerto, because it sure didn't sound like it!

Oh Good Lord... after finishing that Beethoven, I felt like crying. Mostly because it was over, but those are 2 minutes I will never get back.

Matt

STEVEN, PUT THE CAMERA DOWN

STEVEN

pozz

to simulate the sound of a harpsichord?

Are all Jr-Misses supposed to "play" the piano?

Same here, good mate, same here... :rolleyes:

We make them taste wine instead of playing piano at similar occasions. Maybe Americans should consider the same...

I don't know what you guys are talking about, I'm loving it.

Well, given the context - what is the context, by the way, a Junior Miss Pageant, a competition, a wrap-up concert? - the performances are undoubtedly public-pleasing, but there's nothing much in the way of musicianship to appreciate.

Regards,

Is it just me or does the piano sound .. in pain?

Some of them sound okay to me. (Utah, not surprisingly.)

You guys are a tough crowd. I liked all of those. And you have to give credit to Karin Tsai, she sure could have picked something safer to play.

Sorry for bringing this thread back, but I can't help it. I cried after the Beethoven and Chopin "Scherzo". They were really all quite terrible and were severely lacking in musicianship.

Who puts this on, and why? Try as I might, I can't find much of any musical value in it.

ˈskert-(ˌ)sō

Why would musical value have anything to do with it? It's boot camp for trophy wives.

These "competitions" are heinous, in my opinion.. let alone when they involve such young girls. Nonetheless I wonder if the contestants learnt to play their pieces by sheer rote and imitation just for the "show" or are they the product of "piano lessons". If the former, well , Chapeau!! they have done well.. If the latter, who on earth are their piano teachers???
In either case, derisory comments should be addressed to the organizers or the teachers..

Better or worse: the clips in the OP, or this of a certain governor playing the flute (also as part of a "talent" portion of a "beauty" contest)?

For the sake of discussion, let me take a rather different tack.

I haven't listened to all of these, just the one of the girl who is fighting with Beethoven. But let's think about this from a different angle. She is probably better than 90% of all high school age kids studying piano. Compared to the students who have a serious chance at winning major piano competitions she isn't a serious pianist, of course. But this is for a beauty pageant, n'est-ce pas? The contestants are supposed to be .... well rounded, so to speak. The fact that they have an additional talent that requires real effort (and I'll use that word, talent) is not something that I see as a mark of failure. The fact that they achieve at the 90% level instead of the 99% level is perhaps not something to deride.

The great mass of high school pianists out there is quite pedestrian in ability and/or work ethic, and those are the ones who stick it out. There is an even greater mass that up and quit.

Again, I return to something that has bothered me a lot over the years, and it is the tendency among 'real pianists' to use derision and satire for lesser beings who do not achieve at the magical right level. This also shows up when even superbly talented kids are turned into sliced ribbons for the sport of the classical cognoscenti, those for whom dead pianists from the 1920s often are prized as the epitome of beauty, and nothing else will suffice.

I'm reminded of Gandalf's critique of the old Kings of Gondor who, he argued, counted the names of their dead ancestors more highly than their living sons.