"There are vast swathes of 'classical' that I won't listen to but just about everything I do listen to fits within the 'classical' umbrella." I understand that

"There are vast swathes of 'classical' that I won't listen to but just about everything I do listen to fits within the 'classical' umbrella." I understand that. There are classical works that I've little time for. Like any classical music lover, I have strong preferences for certain composers and compositions. I indicated several in my reply to musicale. In your quote of me I chose the words 'much of the mainstream rock and popular music' with care as I do like some modern music, and some of it I find very inventive and cleaver. That said, I can't stand to listen to rap and most stuff with a monotonous repetitive beat, it's boring and doesn't make sense to me. How people find it interesting I'm damned if I know. I fully take your point about those Asian countries and classical music, they are producing many performers of world class. Several weeks ago I was listening to the Sydney International Piano Competition and the young Asian performers were remarkable for their age. I stumbled across the Competition by accident on FM not knowing what it was. I came in part way through a stunning performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat major —a work I know very well, I not only have multiple recording thereof but also a copy of the score (but my piano playing doesn't extend to me being able to perform it). Anyway, I was quite transfixed by the brilliant playing. During the performance I was trying to figure out who the artist was but to no avail. When the back-announcement said it was Jeonghwan Kim I was very surprised. Kim, although Asian, is based in Berlin, it shows the lengths these Asian performers will go to achieve excellence. What I'm still unclear about is why the West has largely lost interest in classical music, it's essentially ditched its own cultural heritage. By way of example, that FM station broadcasting the competition has less than 1% of the radio audience. Proof enough I reckon that people have little interest.