Sex sells, but should it be used to market Mozart?

Sex is used to sell most things in American life, so why not classical music?

The question is prompted by the American debut tour of bond, the British all-female crossover string quartet. Bond's new album, "Classified," features a photo of the four players in filmy chemises and high heels, hair loose and tangled. Inside the women are in black, some of it leather, all of it skimpy. In one image, a huge, white electric cello rises between the legs of the cellist while another player caresses her knee.

One can hardly imagine the Emerson String Quartet being photographed in such positions. But exploiting the sex appeal of classical musicians is hardly confined to publicity for women artists. Back in the mid-'80s, the young Joshua Bell was introduced by London records as a tight-jeaned teen stud, leaning over a motorcyle, something he'd probably never done in his life.

Bell didn't seem to mind some of the negative reaction. "If it takes a leather jacket to get [young people] into the hall, my conscience is clear," he said. Now, 20 years later, he is probably the most popular classical performer of his generation -- and that's because he can play, because he can consistently deliver musical satisfaction.

Bond now has a male counterpart, Maksim (he has a last name, Mrvica, but he doesn't use it). He's a Croatian pianist now being promoted by bond's original manager. Maksim hasn't broken into the American market yet, but the smoldering photographs and the arrangements of Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" with synthesizers and backbeat are at www.maksim.co.uk.

It's useless to be shocked by such tactics, and the shock, by today's standards, is pretty mild. You'd page right past these photographs in a fashion magazine ad without even pausing. Sex appeal has been propelling stars for a century -- and, for that matter, classical stars for longer than that.

In the 19th century people swooned over the diabolical Paganini, the dreamy Chopin; in the 18th century it was eunuch opera singers who roused the artistic passions and sexual curiosity of the public.

Today one wonders if the career of violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, to take one example, would have gone as far if she hadn't been photographed to look like a '30s screen siren for so many years. For that matter, a lot of concert and operatic music is sexy, and it was meant to be, so there is no essential disconnection between the publicity and the music.

But to use sex appeal for marketing in classical music is a risky tactic; it may attract younger listeners, but it can also alienate older ones who think such publicity is tasteless. Lara St. John, once at the New England Conservatory, is an excellent young violinist. Her debut album back in 1996 featured a photograph of her holding her violin in front of her breasts, which are apparently bare, along with the rest of her, although, obviously, you can't tell. This prompted extraordinary sales for an album of Bach music for solo violin, but it also means that a portion of her potential core audience of music lovers simply doesn't take her seriously.

If they got past the cover, described at the time as "Jailbait Bach" by U.S. News and World Report, and actually listened to the album, they would have to.

The problem is that sex appeal has been used so often to promote artistically dubious talents and projects. What bond is selling is certainly not classical music, and probably not even music at all; it is something older even than music. The "Classified" album itself is a nosegay of adaptations of classical themes to current fashions in pop music. Bond's arrangements are dreadful, and it is hard to hear why anyone interested in either pop or classical would bother to listen to them (their live shows may be another matter).

Those who want to take Barber's elegiac "Adagio" seriously have to listen through a rhythm track that is marching to a different drummer; those who are interested in the beat are going to find that Barber's aching melodies and harmonies slow things down. Those who are interested in bond's playing are going to wonder just where the women are in the dense tangle of layered tracks.

This is not the same thing at all as Bell's best-selling "Romance of the Violin" album. Bell adapts beloved classical melodies not written for the violin and plays them in high romantic style. This could awaken curiosity about the originals, but the argument that performances like bond's are going to lead anyone to classical music is simply poppycock. The composers of pieces still in copyright are identified (Barber and Khachaturian), but Tchaikovsky, Bizet, and Brahms go unmentioned in the album credits, although the members of bond who contributed to the arrangements are listed. A newcomer could think that "Senorita" is a composition by violist Tania Davis rather than a selection from Bizet's "Carmen."

Classical music is an elite pursuit -- a talent for writing it and playing it does not exist in everybody. But it is also democratic; those talents appear across the whole spectrum of body types. Women, it seems, can't win; they are criticized if they are dowdy or fat or eccentric in their dress; they are also criticized if they capitalize on their looks. And critics get accused of sexism if they mention that a celebrity soprano is parading a diva gown that cost thousands of dollars and that was not designed to go unnoticed. Men are lucky; they can disappear inside their standard white-tie-and-tails concert uniform.

Opera is another story. It's paradoxically possible to argue that this exotic and irrational entertainment is the most realistic of the performing arts. Most film and television stars do not look like the majority of the population and offer a distorted view of reality. On the operatic stage, sexy voices emerge from people of all sizes, shapes, and ages, and those voices are what make the singers romantic figures. Soprano Deborah Voigt, who has run into trouble because of her weight, calls the voice "the gift" and warns that opera neglects that at its own peril.

We live in a visual culture, but it is good to remind ourselves occasionally that music is still primarily addressed to the ear.