...What the gist of his opinion is to me, it's highbrow mentality, elitism. Basically even mentioning bourgeois.... // See how ideology muddies things?
Of course, in the still current regular usage, bourgeois also is the average working / business middle class, collectively.
Yes, Leonhardt sounded like a dried prune and a reactionary with that 'pronouncement.'
What many overlook though, is there is and are 'an elite' everywhere, in every area.
The leaders of every government, apart from whatever system it is, representative or a horrible dictator in place because of a Junta - are an elitist crop, not everyday, an exclusive few.
So is every major league sports professional, part of an 'elite,' as are the more severely successful business people, and world-class artist / performers and writers - theater, dance, music, film.
They are an elite because they have an extraordinary share of talent, years of having worked at it, and mountains of accumulated highly specialized expertise.
The social evolution from the 19th century to present has truly changed an attitude toward, 'elitists;' a burgeoning middle class has changed that, and I believe that is at the core of my rather 'shocking' post. It seems more and more a public who knows but a bit or some more about whatever they are criticizing now think / feel their opinion has real pull.
For example, to quote a statement from another forum, "If more people began to really like film scores they would then have to be recognized as 'classical' music."
Perhaps it was in reaction to that kind of idea floating about in the collective ethos that inflected my answer. I truly adhere to much of what I said. Common / average taste is beginning to affect what is programmed, performed, and indeed, commissioned in the way of classical music. If that continues, it will be a 'common denominator' rule, and that would be a shame.
As an aside, any governmental say in the arts is lethal - art and bureaucracy / bureaucrats Do Not Mix.
As much as those public influences, audience, critics, the inception of classical music becoming truly commercial (how many copies of this sonata sold?) was really developing already during the time when Beethoven was in mid-career. (A point I think Leonhardt was trying to make).
If that influence had as much sway as it seems to have today, a lot of later Beethoven may not have happened, or not survived so we have it in our time: his audiences were rapidly dwindling toward the end of his career, and if that public as consuming body in a more commercial atmosphere at that time, what we do have from Beethoven might be very different, or there would be less of the later works, which were only understood by a handful 'of elitists.'
Although any art is 'a product,' and getting something performed or getting multiple performances and selling multiple copies of both score and recordings is a business, when it is thought of that first and foremost, it becomes more of a flat-out commercial product and much less 'fine art.'
The vast majority of the great old repertoire much of us enjoy may have also been 'product' and from 'a business,' but that 19th century commercial environment did not have as much emphasis or ruthless drive of marketplace determining what is made and consumed as we have in place now.
There is now a sort of marginal music user who cannot distinguish 'classical' from a John Williams film score. How much would you cede 'because it is a business' that John Williams film scores are on classical concert programming quite regularly, bumping off the list ______ (Your favorite composer, or modern or contemporary classical composers? That line started to shift in the 19th century....
What I see now are people who not only think they should have an equal 'town hall meeting' say, but equal influence as well. No one should feel offended or belittled by the simple fact that no matter how much they may know as a dedicated follower of an art, that they are not an expert with a lifetime of training and experience -- in other words, leave some things to those elitist pros
Maybe when it comes to fine art one should leave the making, performing and programming of it 'to the elitists.'