I spend much of my free time either playing or listening to classical music, so I'm very familiar with articles like this... and every time I read them, my mind translates the author's lament to "remember the good old days when cultural relevance and value was determined exclusively by upper-class middle-aged white people?" I make no apologies for being a cultural reactionary, but I question whether "the wider culture" - as opposed to the educated white elites writing for national media outlets - cared any more for Shostakovich in 1942 than they do today, or why indeed they should care in the first place.