Related to this topic - I remember realizing that one of the biggest differences between the classical and popular music world is that in the popular music world - audience demand defines the popularity of the music.
But in the classical world - popularity of works has been shaped more by performers than audiences.
In my exploration of the piano repertoire - there is a lot of music that is FAR EASIER to enjoy on first listens than a lot of the ‘great works’ that are performed.
This suggests that most people go for concerts of the faith of being a fan of performers, and then being guided by the performers choices of repertoire.
The fact remains that if someone is a serious pianist - they will practice a fuck load - and practicing easily appreciable simpler music is just not meaty and rewarding enough to sustain their long term interest.
So you get the rise of popularity of something complex and weighty like Liszt’s Sonata. And the decreasing in popularity of lighter repertoire like Weber’s Invitation which was hugely performed at one time.
It really is the tastes of the performers themselves that keep pieces in the repertoires more than public demand!
I’d argue that part of the reason classical has a limited audience is the lack of awareness of this lighter repertoire - I genuinely believe it’s legitimate and can be great in it’s own way. I think that it would be fun if pianists were to perform more of this music too.
I myself like the fact we have different weight divisions of pieces, sometimes I like a featherweight piece, and sometimes a super heavyweight like the stuff we are discussing here