America is home to five of the 10 busiest orchestras in the world, according to Bachtrack’s yearly statistics, the New York Philharmonic being the most in-demand with an impressive 135 performances. Germany and the UK also represented strongly, each with 2 orchestras in the top 10.
Leonard Bernstein’s upcoming 2018 centenary year also exerted a big effect on the kind of music played in the US over the past 12 months, with the programming of music by American composers jumping by 5%.
Germany and Austria are the most attached to their national repertoire, both with around 25% of the concerts containing music by national composers. This dominance was also reflected in other countries, with 19.6% of music programmed elsewhere in the world composed by Germans and 12.6% by Austrians.
In France, Austria and the UK, the percentage of concerts containing music by national composers at home was roughly double the percentage programmed worldwide. This proportion was much different in Spain, however. Spanish composers only accounted for 1.2% of music programmed around the world, while they made up 10.4% of the repertoire programmed in Spain.
When it came to native composers, Germans displayed a marked preference for their Baroque music, while Austrians were overwhelmingly interested in Classical. Meanwhile, France favoured its 20th century repertoire, while contemporary works dominated in the UK and Spain.
Mozart wrested the title of most programmed composer from Beethoven, keeping true to the tug-of-war pattern that has seen the two composers alternate in pole position for the past four years.
Arvo Pärt remains the most popular contemporary composer at number 44 in the top 100 most programmed composers.
All of these statistics are based exclusively on performances listed on the Bachtrack website.
