A note of pessimism as classical music starts to fall on deaf ears

Billed as the world's greatest classical music festival, this annual extravaganza has become a popular fixture on the social and cultural calendar.

For many people their summers are bookended by this eight-week season of classical music concerts and Proms in the Park events held across the country.

Each year it culminates with a flag-waving knees-up at the Royal Albert Hall. The Last Night of the Proms, a kind of classical greatest hits medley, traditionally starts with Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 (Land of Hope and Glory), and ends with Jerusalem and the national anthem.

They might not be everyone's cup of tea but these concerts have been enjoyed by countless music fans down the generations. However, a new survey suggests that our knowledge of classical music and the composers who created it appears to be on the wane.

A Reader's Digest survey found that one in three people have never listened to classical music, while a small number of people, four per cent, wrongly identified Bocconcini – small Italian cheese balls – as a composer. The survey, which questioned 1,516 people, also found that 75 per cent did not know that Elgar wrote Pomp and Circumstance and 27 per cent didn't even know he was a composer. Gill Hudson, editor-in-chief of Reader's Digest, suggests that classical music needs to be more accessible. "There's clearly an appetite for classical music. But I suspect that a combination of uninspired teaching and the elitism that surrounds much of the genre has alienated many people – hence the lack of knowledge of some of the greatest classical music and composers of all time."

For many people, classical music can stir the spirits like nothing

else, so does it really alienate people? Opera North's concerts director, Dougie Scarfe, doesn't think so. "The biggest independent UK radio station is Classic FM which has around six million listeners a week and an incredible number of school children. So in terms of interest I don't think this is the whole story. Audiences for our concert season in Kirklees are up 11 per cent and 50,000 people come every year to Opera in the Park," he says.

"What we call classical music has the power to engage and move that all music has and it's our job to keep showing that. It's about people's enjoyment and that's more important than knowing the guy's name was Tchaikovsky."

Dr Anastasia Belina, of Leeds University's School of Music, says classical music has suffered from an image problem in the past. "I think it has been seen as a bit elitist and accessible only to those with a more privileged background. Classical music is seen as more difficult to learn, the processes are more technical and there are more components. Also, pop music and jazz are less restrictive and let you improvise, unlike classical music which is quite strict and is seen as less fun."

Despite this, she doesn't believe interest is dropping. "We have so many students who are studying classical music that it's hard to say it's declining. I actually believe that perhaps the definition of classical music is changing, especially for the younger generation."

Professor Mike Russ, Dean of the School of Music, Humanities and Media at Huddersfield University, agrees there is now a wider definition of what constitutes classical music. "It is trying to be less elitist and has a wider repertoire now that includes film scores and music from great shows by Rodgers and Hammerstein and Gershwin," he says. "If you look at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival the audiences are growing steadily and if you look at the Proms and the Glyndebourne Festival they both have strong audiences. There was a period a few years back when there was a lot of handwringing about the demise of classic music with orchestras falling apart. But I think they have re-invented themselves and become more audience-friendly."

Prof Russ does admit there is concern about the level of classical music on the school curriculum. "There's more focus on film music and ethnic and electronic music and less interest in Bach, Beethoven and Haydn. There's more emphasis on students being able to create their own music rather than learning about the music of great men of the past."

But at the same time he believes the downloading culture has helped expose classical music to a wider audience. "People obtain music through so many different ways now which means it's become much more accessible. It's still great music at the end of the day, so I think any prognosis about the death of classical music is premature. There's a lot of life left in the old dog yet."