SEDUCTIVE STRINGS

AH, THE CONCERT HALL: THE ORchestra, smartly attired in white tie and tails; the elegant conductor, raising his slender baton as he prepares to give the downbeat; the dramatically beautiful young violinist resplendent in...a wet T shirt?

It hasn't come to that--not yet, anyway. But to judge from a fresh crop of young female performers, the dowdy, male-dominated world of classical music is in for a long-needed injection of glamour and, yes, sex appeal. String players all, the women present images ranging from the frank sensuality of electric violinist Vanessa-Mae, 17, to the girl-next-door allure of Leila Josefowicz, 18, to the more mature charms of Canadian cellist Ofra Harnoy, 30, and sultry new-music violinist Maria Bachmann, 35. And then there's the all-female violoncello quartet known collectively as Cello. The group is making records, performing widely--and if physical allure helps, so be it.

Indeed, there is a dawning recognition among classical performers that in a world in which marketing is queen, it behooves even serious musicians to put all their assets front and center. "The more we can try to appeal to broader audiences the better," says the highly accomplished Bachmann, whose latest album, Kiss on Wood, offers music by Aaron Copland and Alfred Schnittke--as well as a come-hither album back cover featuring (by classical music's standards) some generous cleavage. "Let's face it, people go into record stores and a lot of times buy recordings on the basis of what they see on the cover," says Bachmann.

What they see can be eye catching. The Thai-Chinese-British violinist who goes by the name Vanessa-Mae (full name: Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson) has a new album, The Violin Player, climbing up the worldwide pop charts on the strength of her disco-driven version of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. A photo on the single from the album features the slim, pretty teen fiddling away while standing in the Mediterranean in a soaking-wet see-through white shift. "If as a result of this, people see the violin as a fresh, trendy, up-to-date instrument, that's fine with me," says Vanessa-Mae, whose avowed goal is to do for the electric violin what Jimi Hendrix did for the electric guitar. "If the music is good and well played, then it will touch anybody, anywhere." And if the music fails to touch audiences, there's always the video, which can be seen on VH1 and features Vanessa-Mae in tight hot pants, strolling saucily on the beach and looking for all the world like a Saigon B-girl circa 1965.

Did somebody say exploitation? "Of course she is an attractive young lady," says Mel Bush, Vanessa-Mae's British manager. "The classical press has felt we were exploiting somebody young with a very light, sexy image, but she is not being exploited. She makes all the decisions herself."

Everyone agrees that no matter how attractive the musician, if the performance is lacking, the career will not take off. Says Harnoy, the cellist whose bodice-baring Victorian dresses sometimes distract attention from her accomplished playing: "If this is getting albums sold, great. But I don't think if somebody buys my album because they like the picture, they will buy the next album because they like the picture. If the music is not pleasing them, there are only so many pictures they want to have."