Since the establishment of a classical music canon in the 19th century, classical music culture has historically been focused on a stable set of masterpieces by genius composers predominantly from the classical and romantic periods. A small number of composers continue to dominate programming to this day. Many classical music organisations are keen to programme music beyond this narrow repertoire and to showcase new or unfamiliar works. The need to sell tickets, however, is often an obstacle, with organisations far more confident in the ability of big hits to attract large crowds. This article explores the experiences and opinions of classical music concertgoers in relation to familiar and unfamiliar music, providing a number of reasons as to why audiences may choose to hear well-known pieces rather than new works. This paper reports on one strand of a qualitative study with 42 individuals who booked tickets for one of two concert series consisting of core and populist repertoire, respectively. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to explore the reasons for their choices and their experiences of attending live concerts. These interviews showed that most participants did indeed have a clear preference for hearing music that was familiar to them, and only frequent attenders relished the challenge of unknown music. Participants felt that listening to familiar music was usually a more enjoyable experience than hearing something new. They rarely spoke of becoming bored with over-familiar music, perhaps because the live concert experience brings a sense of freshness to even the most familiar work.

自19世纪建立古典音乐典范以来，古典音乐文化一直以来都集中在天才作曲家稳定的杰作上，这些杰作主要来自古典和浪漫时期。直到今天，少数作曲家仍继续主导编程。许多古典音乐组织热衷于在狭窄的曲目范围之外进行音乐编程，并展示新的或不熟悉的作品。但是，售票的需求通常是一个障碍，因为组织对大热门吸引大批人群的能力更有信心。本文探讨了古典音乐演唱者在熟悉和不熟悉的音乐方面的经验和看法，并提供了许多原因，说明了观众为什么选择听著名作品而不是新作品。核心曲目和民粹曲目。进行了半结构化访谈，以探讨他们选择的原因以及参加现场音乐会的经验。这些访谈表明，大多数参与者确实确实很喜欢听他们熟悉的音乐，只有经常参加的参与者才喜欢未知音乐的挑战。与会人员认为，听熟悉的音乐通常比听新事物更有趣。他们很少说对过度熟悉的音乐感到无聊，这也许是因为现场音乐会的经历甚至为最熟悉的作品带来了新鲜感。