Where in Europe do people attend most classical concerts?
UncategorizedNot Germany.
Not Austria.
Not Holland.
A Eurobarometer survey asked: How many times in the last 12 months have you been to a concert?
The highest concert attendance was in Sweden, with 61 percent of respondents have been at least once. Next was Denmark.
Here’s our chart:
1 Sweden (61)
2 Denmark (60)
3 Latvia (55)
4 Estonia (54)
5 Austria (52)
= Luxembourg (52)
7 Lithuania (51)
= Netherlands (51)
9 Finland (47)
10 Germany (45)
The UK languishes with 36 percent. Portugal was bottom of the table with 19%, just below Poland and Greece.
When you say “classical concert”, are you referring to only professional orchestras? I’d like to see your data. What “respondents” are you referring to?
Answering myself: “Eurobarometer” .. checking it out
Checked it out, can’t find that survey there. got a link?
Found it, here is the link:
http://www.google.fr/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fec.europa.eu%2Fpublic_opinion%2Farchives%2Febs%2Febs_399_en.pdf&ei=md8EU5iAOcuY1AXvjoHYBQ&usg=AFQjCNH9H6nKG9EbxpNNVDX5isF2mfkU0w&bvm=bv.61535280,d.d2k
well done, Lisa!
No link, apparently. It came by email.
Thanks Norm! I finally just googled it! It was very interesting!
Do you know in which part of the table is Spain?
Well, not so far from UK….
But the worst thing is see how the most europeans see expensive concert tickets…Do you know that in Spain you need to pay more taxes (VAT) to lbuy a CD to listen Beethoven’s 5th than to buy a newspaper or the last novel by…?
And in your country?
In Germany, reduced VAT (7%) apllies for books, newspapers and journals (pron excluded) as well as for theatre, opera and concert tickets. It das not apply for CDs, for which full VAT (i.e. 19%) applies.
So it iseems our politicians look more adecuate to pay less taxes for read the Playboy magazine than for buy a CD in order to listen Beethoven….
Perhaps decadence is the word I have in mind….
OMG, looks like I was drunk when posting this!
Amazing, Norman! The best (Sweden) only went to ONE concert in 12 months? How about France?
Err, it says 61% of Swedes went to *at least* one concert in the last 12 months.
33%
Sorry to be a party pooper but the survey doesn’t ask how many “Classical” concerts a European has been to but how many “concerts” in general. That can be any kind of concert (Rap, Techno, Big Band, My Little Pony). The reason that was given the most for not going to concerts was “lack of interest “followed closely by “too expensive” and “lack of time”. On the other, the answer given to whether they have gone to Ballet, Dance Performance, or Opera was the top thing people haven’t done in the last 12 months, followed by the Theater, and going to a Public Library. So concerts were 4th on the list and only slightly less popular than museum visits. Also, concerts were 6th on the list of “Lack of Interest” as being the reason for not attending, with only three options being more interesting. I don’t think from the data I saw one can draw a conclusion about Classical Music concerts, but one can clearly see that people really are not interested in spending money on going to ballets, operas or dance performances.
Good work in finding the survey.
It indeed states:
“These respondents will have gone to a range of concerts including classical, folk, pop and rock.”
I would also like to know about Spain.
With 26 professional full time symphony orchestras, loads of visiting international soloists who sell out concert halls thruout the country, several internationally recognized choruses, who’ve sung with such orchs. as NY Phil,
3 opera houses with nearly year round programming and much much more, I find it hard to believe that Spain is not even mentioned. I suspect it’s an oversight on the statisticians.
Spain is passionate about classical music. Spaniards are ardent classical music consumers. I respectfully request a recalculation.
31%
Thank you!! :))
That’s strange. I was speaking to a Spanish chorister the other day, and she was complaining about how music is hated in this country. So it’s obviously a love/hate thing.
Hated? Ignored is the Word. But as John Adams says…the guilty is Schoenberg and serialists…http://www.elmundo.es/cultura/2014/02/19/5304150522601d1e258b4582.html
Nonsense. Schoenberg and the serialists aren’t “guilty” of anything. A lot of people don’t like their music, and that is why it is not played that much. But that has nothing to do with other styles of music. It’s not like people go to concerts less because all that is played these days is serialism.
I think, it seems to me anyway, that serial music is more popular in Great Britain. At least the people I meet that talk about it the most are the British.
I totally agree Michael. If, heaven forbid, they could eradicate Schoenberg and the serialists from the history of music it wouldn’t make a jot of difference to the problems that face classical music. I’m afraid they need to look much further afield for someone or something to blame for that problem.
Using the ‘big data’ of Google I think this graph rather puts things into perspective. The huge spike at the end correlates to the Sochi Games, and that in itself puts things into even more greater perspective.
http://www.michaeljohnstewart.co.uk/some-stats/
Perhaps sounds exagerated…not really mean “guilty” but when it started all. There are more gems by Adams, now it’s the turn of Cage:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/books/review/Upfront-t.html?_r=0
I wonder how many of the people who lambast Schoenberg have actually heard much of his music. A lot of prejudice against him arises because it is (and often has been, even during Schoenberg’s lifetime) fashionable to be anti-intellectual, and to adopt the consumerist mentality that favours instant gratification over challenge.
Furthermore, as has already been mentioned, music from the Second Viennese School does not tend to be programmed very often (with the arguable exception of the Berg Violin Concerto), so its existence is unlikely to deter people from attending concerts. In any event, audiences are not homogenous demographics: for my part, a Schoenberg piece in the programme is likely to attract me to a concert, and an Adams piece to deter me.
I commend the more substantial commentary on this issue written by E. Randol Schoenberg, which can be found on his weblog, at:
http://schoenblog.com/?p=106
lol! You are a brave man!
Jajaja…Don’t kill the messenger, I was linking what Adams has recently said…The really brave is Adams
You can look at the survey yourself here:
http://www.google.fr/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fec.europa.eu%2Fpublic_opinion%2Farchives%2Febs%2Febs_399_en.pdf&ei=md8EU5iAOcuY1AXvjoHYBQ&usg=AFQjCNH9H6nKG9EbxpNNVDX5isF2mfkU0w&bvm=bv.61535280,d.d2k
As has been pointed out already, the title is wrong. This is not about classical concerts only, it is about all genres of music.
In that case…the results are even worst!
Bruce Springsteen is able to sold out tickets for the Santiago Bernabeu but Joshua Bell no…so less people attend classical concerts…