Classical music popular among Hungarians

Budapest (MTI) – Classical music is popular in Hungary but only few people get the chance to attend concerts regularly, a recent survey showed.

While the place of residence has little effect on Hungarians’ willingness to listen to classical music, it does affect their ability to go to concerts, the survey conducted by the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Index Online on a sample of 18,000 showed.

Nearly twice as many Budapest residents attended concerts at least once a year than villagers did, while the proportion of those who regularly listened to classical music from other sources was equal in the two categories.

The survey showed that respondents in the age group 25-40 were the least likely to go to concerts, while the share of concert-goers gradually increased over the age of 40.

More than half of the respondents said they had a negative view of the quality of music education in Hungary, with a quarter of them saying that everyone should learn to play a musical instrument in school. One-fifth of the respondents said they would make it compulsory for their child to learn to play an instrument, with most saying they would leave that decision to the child.

Two-thirds of the respondents said they played or would play a musical instrument, with the majority of classical music fans coming from this category.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters