FLESHING OUT THE CLASSICS : LONG-HAIRED MUSIC IS TAKING IT OFF AND MIXING IT UP TO WIDEN ITS APPEAL.

Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Music Writer

Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter says she prefers off-the-shoulder dresses on stage because her instrument sounds better without fabric coming between it and her.

New York's Lara St. John goes one step further and is pictured on the cover of her new album wearing nothing but her violin.

There's something new stirring in the classical section of your local music store. Embracing lovers in seductive poses urge prospective buyers to ``indulge your mood with music'' as opera divas and soloists reveal more than just their love of music in an attempt to lure new listeners.

Meanwhile, dance beats are being mixed with liturgical chants, jazz saxophonists are collaborating with opera stars, country fiddlers are jamming with cellists and mood music is taking on new meanings.

Classical music is pulling out all the stops to gain mass appeal, starting with its packaging. The unusual and often suggestive covers of some classical CDs today are designed to attract segments of the population that might be intimidated by the snooty upper-crust image of your basic Bach and Chopin. Some oldies, it seems, will always be golden, but it apparently doesn't hurt to sprinkle a little fairy dust on the proceedings.

Take, for example, Mutter, who is usually pictured in stylish evening dresses and strapless designer gowns, her cleavage as familiar as her repertoire to classical music lovers.

Or 25-year-old virtuoso violinist Lara St. John, pictured nude from the waist up on the cover of her best-selling album, ``Bach: Works for Violin Solo,'' chest obscured by her violin.

Singapore-born teen violin prodigy Vanessa-Mae Nicholson has an equally striking image. In one video for a synthesized version of a Bach piece, Nicholson wears a wet T-shirt. On stage, she also is no stranger to the top designer gown.

``Packaging is very important,'' said Steve Murphy, head of the Angel-EMI Classics label. ``In the past, labels have treated their covers like wine labels - the more difficult it is to read, the more sophisticated and supposedly better the music. I believe people would buy more classics if they had a little help in knowing what they're getting.''

Something had to be done. According to Billboard, classical sales are down 19 percent from 1995. Market share has also dropped at the same time more than 5,500 new classical CDs are released each year to a shrinking pool of buyers.

That's why St. John's producer, Kathy Geisler, dubs the photographer who took the nude shot of the Canadian-born violinist for the album cover ``some kind of insane genius.'' The sex-and-violins Bach disc has generated good press, landed St. John on national television and sold more than 20,000 copies, reaching the Billboard classical charts.

While both Mutter and Nicholson regularly make the best-sellers list, not everybody agrees the marketing technique has wide appeal.

``Just by putting a sexy cover on something doesn't change the content,'' Murphy said. ``You get it home and it's still Tchaikovsky. While Vanessa-Mae is sexy, that's who she is. That's why her albums work - they're true to who she is. By the same token, taking a compilation of classical recordings and trying to pretend it's for a particular sexual persuasion doesn't make sense.''

Geisler said some of the strong reaction to St. John's cover shot surprised her. Some retailers have refused to stock the album while others sent the album back to her Berkeley company, Well-Tempered Productions, in a huff.

``I've had people calling and yelling at me,'' she said. ``A guy sent me back the CD from a radio station saying my label is banned forever. My heart sank because it scared me. I didn't understand all these negative reactions. Others said it was a beautiful Bach recording. There were two opposing viewpoints, and after this started happening I realized you can't have one without the other.''

Geisler said St. John and she believe it's their mission to bring more listeners into the classical fold.

``But the classical elite let it be known they did not approve,'' the producer said. ``They're suffocating the thing they hold most dear.''

Next up from St. John is ``Gypsy,'' an album of violin virtuoso pieces to be recorded next month. As for the proposed cover, Geisler would only say that she's using the same photographer as last time.

Sometimes, the classics are packaged as mood music. Angel Records recenty released a series called ``Cosmopolitan Classics,'' a budget-priced set of themed CDs aimed at young women ages 18 to 34. Some of the titles in the series, which is the result of a licensing deal between Angel and the best-selling women's magazine Cosmopolitan, are ``Rainy Afternoon,'' ``Seduction'' and ``Intimate Evening,'' which shows a couple in bed. Each CD sports the tag line: ``Indulge your mood with music.''

Murphy said the goal of such design is to get the music sampled by people that wouldn't ordinarily buy a classical disc.

Another series, titled ``Classical Erotica,'' features orchestral music aimed at ``adults only'' and illustrated by embracing female nudes. The ``Out Classics'' series, with its revealingly suggestive photos, is aimed at a gay audience.

``What's gone wrong for some labels is that they sometimes forget you can't sell classical music as something it's not,'' Murphy said.

The chant phenomenon is an interesting offshoot. It was three years ago that a group of Spanish monks made their chart debut with ``Chant,'' consisting of 1,000-year-old Latin liturgical texts sung in unison. Since that multimillion-selling album hit the top of the classical music charts, monks of all stripes have gotten into the act with varying degrees of success.

Lately, imaginative producers have mixed chants with sampled beats and come up with a new type of exotic crossover dance music. Two volumes of ``Vision: The Music of Hildegard Von Bingen'' have sold wGell by mixing 12th-century religious chants with the original compositions of Richard Souther, a writer-arranger who once performed with the Mothers of Invention.

At the top of the classical music charts currently is ``Appalachia Waltz,'' a collaboration by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bassist Edgar Meyer and country fiddler Mark O'Connor.

But as labels attempt to draw new listeners to classical music, they may be going overboard at times, said Paula Morris, director of eclectic ECM Records.

``I would think girls posing seductively would appeal more to middle-age men than young people in general,'' she said. ``I can see why labels would try to make their classical records more mass market and I know they're obsessed with attracting a new audience. But I still think packaging should have some relation to content.''

CAPTION(S):

6 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter

(2) Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter thinks that off-the-shoulder dresses help her music sound better.

(3) ``Vision: The Music of Hildegard Von Bingen'' mixes 12th-century religious chants with compositions by Richard Souther, who once performed with the Mothers of Invention.

(4) In one video for a synthesized version of a Bach piece, teen violin prodigy Vanessa-Mae Nicholson wears a wet T-shirt.

(5) ``Appalachia Waltz,'' a collaboration by bassist Edgar Meyer, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and country fiddler Mark O'Connor, is currently on the classical music charts.

(6) Angel Records has packaged the classics as a mood music series, each sporting the tag line ``Indulge your mood with music.''