Originally Posted by Frownland

Welcome to the forum. I get where you're coming from, but I think that there are some pretty straightforward social influences at play. Musical recording technology only goes back so far, which makes music that was created in the modern times easier to access. These recording advances led to the focus shifting from the composer to the performer, with extra attention being pointed at nuances. I think that The Beatles played a big role in connecting the performer and the composer and that has snowballed to the point where people equate the two. This introduces an extra step for modern listeners trying to become informed on classical music: they have to research the best composers, and then they have to find the best performers for that composer's works. That's a step that's often missed when they hear a high school band perform Ode to Joy. The internet age has made it very easy to circumvent this, but let's not pretend like people use the internet to its fullest advantage.