Input

Look through older interviews with violinist Julia Fischer, and you’ll find a disturbing mix of chauvinism and sleaze: “A desirable German export with doe eyes and blond, angelic hair”; “young, sexy, and classical”; “ready for the runway.” One television anchor says she has the “looks, talent, and intelligence of a superwoman,” only to ask her later if she’s able to change a tire. In another interview, she’s asked to explore the question of “visual stimuli”—in other words, her looks—in music. Fischer’s indifference towards both pop culture and making artistic compromises for the sake of pandering to the audience often leaves journalists projecting onto her some kind of desperate bourgeois cultural fantasy.