Re: General--Classical Music

Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 23:31:33 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical.performing
Size: 1,010 bytes

"Craig" <email-address-deleted> wrote in message
news:email-address-deleted...
> Who is the most famous classical performer. Does any one know?
You would have to define "famous". Does this mean in terms of recording
sales, name recognition, recognition of their work, or something else?
Purely in terms of "fame," performers who have had success in genres other
than "classical" would certainly top the list over all those with a purely
classical emphasis. These would include performers who are primarily
involved in popular music such as Sir Paul McCartney and Billy Joel or those
whose work is so diverse as to elude classification such as Frank Zappa. Of
those with a purely "classical" emphasis my guess is that Yo Yo Ma will have
the top name recognition over most if not all musicians with far more
recordings to their credit. This would be due to 3 main factors: The
quality of his work, his ubiquity as a performer, and a name that is easy to
remember.