I got a copy of the November issue of American String Teacher today, which
has an article about Janos Starker.  It made me think a bit more about
this music-cum-cheesecake thing.  So far the conventional wisdom about the
Eroica Trio (for example) is that 1) they make good music AND 2) they are
babes.

 From the article:  "In the New Age where re-interpretation
has occasionally supplanted re-creation, in which arts marketing
Hollywood-style and MTV aesthetics are becoming mainstream, Starker
applies an antidote.  He uses what he calls his musical Holy Trinity:
purity, balance, and simplicity.  Art is worthy of more humility and
dignity and less self-promotion, he has said."

Most who love the music would agree with Starker here, I think.  A couple
of questions do come to mind, however.  First:  Do people (generally I mean
men here, but not exclusively!) who buy a CD because of the sexy cover art
end up getting the pure benefits of the artistic performance--or is that
experience inevitably "polluted" by fantasies of babes doing their thing?
(If she plays like that, I wonder what she'd be like in bed)

Second:  What is the relation of the artist to the art, in cases where
the art has to be re-created, as in music? Certainly the artist has to
contribute to the experience--collaboration between composer and performer
is axiomatic when the two aren't the same.  This is another thread,
however.  I would offer apropos to this thread that the collaboration has
to be judged in musical terms and not in terms of physical attributes.

People should hear the music first and then look at the performers.  That's
really the only way you can separate the experience of the music from the
appearance of the people doing it.

Chris Bonds