And this, alas, is what the classical-music business has come to in America and elsewhere: chasing sensations, whether David Helfgott, Gregorian chant or aging tenors.

But some of the assumptions driving this change in the classical-music business have achieved wide currency without being carefully examined.

Yet there is an awareness among some of the more thoughtful decision makers in the classical-music business that the use of specious sales tactics is exacting a price.

In my experience, this goes against the grain of the traditional classical-music business.

The festivities seem more diffuse, more opaque, less demonstrative, less central to the engines that drive the classical-music business.

"Given today's funding crisis," he said, "it's increasingly important to advocate for the classical-music business; explain to audiences why the orchestra exists and why they should support it."

The fault, Mr. Lebrecht suggests, is not in the pop stars but in the classical-music business itself, with its susceptibility to the deadly sin of greed.

Record companies are leaping in its direction, signaling a classical-music business desperate for fresh blood.

Salespeople in the classical-music business have their categories, too: the Verdi baritone, the prodigy violinist, the period-instrument conductor and such.

"I hate the classical-music business," he said.