Classical music has no charms for British

The British may be a nation of music lovers but they are clueless when it comes to classical composers, a survey has revealed.

One in three people (33 per cent) have never listened to classical music and a small number of people (4 per cent) identified Bocconcini — small Italian cheese balls — as a composer.

Most people were unable to link composers to their masterpieces, the Reader's Digest survey of 1,516 people found.

Three out of four (75 per cent) did not know that Sir Edward Elgar wrote Pomp and Circumstance, the music for Land of Hope and Glory, and 27 per cent did not even know he was a composer. And 68 per cent did not know that the Russian composer Tchaikovsky wrote the 1812 Overture.

The Welsh were more likely to own a classical CD: 72 per cent compared with the British average of 59 per cent.