Halls of Fame

Oh Christ, that time of year again. But first let's check in at Gramophone, whose new Hall of Fame is much more classy than anything Classic FM can produce. Although personally I think if you're going to have a Hall of Fame, it has to be an actual hall, somewhere my in-laws can visit and send us a postcard from. Anyway, nothing too dramatic has happened in the initial phase of Gramophone's Hall, unless you feel the need to get worked up over the fact that the 50 names include Lang Lang.
You'll be glad to know, however, that teh Internets has been far more successful at ruining the latest Classic FM poll. Apparently the twenty most popular pieces of classical music among listeners of Classic FM include "Aerith's Theme" from Final Fantasy VII; Nobuo Uematsu's tinkly little weepie fits in reasonably well with the station's taste for crossover though I'm not sure what the Classic FM/Final Fantasy Venn diagram looks like. The theme from Skyrim got in as well, though only at no.238. That one's for people who think the Pirates of the Caribbean theme doesn't sound enough like Lord of the Rings, or vice versa.
So, well done nerds on your chart-spiking success, but people who like lovely choral music have beaten you in terms of number of entries, because Jaime Lannister Eric Whitacre has finally made it into the charts with three pieces, while Paul Mealor manages four, one of which, the horribly horribly mawkish "Wherever You Are" as performed by the Military Wives, is straight in at number 5. But it's a pop song, surely?
Hurrah! Western civilisation is over!