Page 10 - BBC Music (January 2020)

The full score
Our pick of the month’s news, views and interviews
Survey reveals lack of classical music knowledge in UK
However, majority of Brits also say they would like the opportunity to learn more
How much do most people in the UK
know about classical music? Not a great
deal, would appear to be the answer. In
a recent survey, just over 30 per cent of
those questioned knew that Elgar was the
composer of ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, and
only ten per cent could say who composed
‘Jerusalem’. Asked about today’s leading
musical figures, 30 per cent said they knew
that Simon Rattle was a conductor and 20
per cent were aware that Nicola Benedetti
was a violinist – in contrast, 94 per cent
knew who the pop singer Adele was.
For the survey, which was commissioned hadn’t covered the subject su!ciently.
by the classical music streaming service
Primephonic, 2,000 people aged 16 and
over were asked a range of questions
GETTY that produced a number of eye-catching
results – not least that 18 per cent of people
12 BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Unfamiliar Austrian:
most people know little about
Mozart; (above) Thomas
Steffens of Primephonic
aged between 16 and 34 believed that
JS Bach is still alive, or that 65 per cent
of the same age group didn’t know that
Mozart was Austrian. Though those in
older age groups tended to show a greater
knowledge of classical music, 61 per cent
Only ten per cent of those
surveyed could say who
composed ‘Jerusalem’
of all respondents said that their education
However, it’s not all doom and gloom.
An encouraging 88 per cent of those
asked said they enjoyed classical music
when they heard it, and 68 per cent said
they wanted to learn more about it. The
challenge, it would seem, is
to provide the means.
‘To me, this survey is
primarily positive news,’
Thomas Ste"ens, CEO of
Primephonic, tells BBC
Music Magazine. ‘If people
were simply no longer
interested in classical
music – if preferences had
changed over time – then we’d just have
to accept that as a fact of life. However, in
this instance, the problem is a fixable one.
It simply needs the education system, the
music industry and, of course, streaming
services to take responsibility.’
Interestingly, Ste"ens says that surveys
in the US and Holland produced similar
results. ‘In the Netherlands, though, we
also asked people “Do you know where to
find information about what to listen to?”,’
he adds. ‘Older people tended to say “Yes, I
do”, while younger ones said “No, I don’t”.
Young people like classical music as much
as older people, but it is consumed by older
people because, through CD collections
and so on, they have better access to the
information they need to navigate this
quite intimidating subject. We now need
to accept that there is a “streaming-only”
generation and learn to adapt to speak
their language.’
In the light of the Primephonic
findings, BBC Music Magazine carried
out its own brief survey on the streets of
central Bristol. Asked to identify pictures
of composers, 30 per cent recognised
Mozart and 27.5 per cent correctly spotted
Beethoven. Of those who did recognise
Mozart, however, only 33 per cent knew
he was Austrian. In contrast, 90 per cent
knew that Beethoven was German.