Chopin is out and Orff's in

TWO OF the composers who have hitherto defined popular classical music - Bach and Tchaikovsky - have failed tomake an appearance in a new poll of the nation's favourite classical music.

Strauss, Schubert, Puccini and Ravel are other notable top 20 absentees in one of the largest polls yet conducted. And the days of Ravel's Bolero and Dvorak's New World Symphony being named in polls are apparently over.

More than 10,000 readers of the BBC's Radio Times and its website voted. The results, to be published in the magazine tomorrow, put Vivaldi's Four Seasons first, followed by another piece of baroque music, Pachelbel's Canon. Beethoven has the most entries, with three pieces. Elgar is the only other composer to appear more than once.

Michael Church, classical music writer with The Independent, said: "A tenth-rater like Orff gets in, but no Bach, Chopin or Schubert. This is a very sludgy list. What you'd expect when listeners cast their votes for golden oldies pushed by the broadcasters."

Percussionist Evelyn Glennie said: "Vivaldi's Four Seasons is full of contrasts - simple, pure and delicate but with plenty of fury and aggression too. I love it so much that I have arranged it for percussion and string orchestra, though I'm not wholly convinced that it works."

Highlights from the poll will appear on a BBC compact disc to be released in September, entitled The Nation's Favourite Classical Music. The BBC Philharmonic orchestra will also perform a selection of the most popular pieces at a concert on Sunday 19 September at Bridgewater Hall, in Manchester.

Leading article,

Review, page 3

The Classical Top 20

1. Vivaldi Four Seasons

2. Pachelbel Canon

3. Holst The Planets

4. Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2

5. Mozart Clarinet Concerto

6. Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a theme by T Tallis

7. Barber Adagio for Strings

8. Verdi Nabucco

9. Beethoven Symphony No 6 Pastoral

10. Joaquin Rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez

11. Elgar Enigma Variations

12. Handel Messiah

13. Mahler Symphony No 5

14. Elgar Cello Concerto

15. Faure Requiem

16. Beethoven Symphony No 9 Choral

17. Beethoven Piano Concerto No 5

18. Orff Carmina Burana

19. Albioni Adagio

20. Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade