I hate lists. They function as cheap and easy entertainment for lazy TV and radio schedulers and force us to make invidious comparisons. While you can more realistically make a programme about the top ten TV Bitches, or perhaps ask listeners to vote for their favourite Beatles tracks, to compile a list of the nation's favourite classics is ludicrous.
How can you compare Bach with Berlioz? Or Schubert with Stravinsky? Or a piece written in 1470 to another written last year? It's like asking people to vote for their favourite food, and pitting mangos against french fries against wild swan with truffles.
"The hall of fame is a constantly evolving chart and provides a unique insight into the musical tastes of the nation," says Classic FM's Darren Henley.
Really? Rachmaninov's Brief Encounter theme (guess what pop pickers, he didn't call it that) has been number one for five years and the soupy, schmaltzy side of the classical repertoire dominates, as it does year after year.
The "unique insight" this list offers is that we are a nation of conservatives who want our classical music to be gentle, undemanding, and familiar. Lists of this kind do no favours to the station, its listeners, or today's classical musicians, struggling to persuade people that it is a vibrant and exciting medium.
Imogen Tilden
