Why am I able to vote for Johann Strauss but not Wagner in a poll conducted by our biggest commercial radio station to find our favourite classical composer? Why, in Classic FM’s new venture, which also claims to discover our favourite soloist - living or dead - can I pick the drummer Evelyn Glennie or the cellist Jacqueline du Pré, but not Vladimir Ashkenazy, Richter, Rostro-povich, Maurizio Pollini or Jascha Heifetz? And, most outrageous of all, why, in the diva category, again covering both alive and dead, can I vote for Lesley Garrett - who just happens to be a Classic FM presenter - but not Elizabeth Schwarzkopf or Kathleen Ferrier? I love Classic FM, for its warmth and for the musical windows it has opened, and it is sad to see it behave so embarrassingly.

In 1996, four years after first going on air, Classic FM launched its Hall of Fame, an annual poll in which listeners pick their favourite work. The results are revealed every Easter in a 48-hour special of rising excitement. Listeners have a completely free choice and can vote for anything they want. Purists, of course, shudder at the way great art is thus reduced to a vulgar countdown. But it has proved so popular, with more than 30,000 people voting (though only four pieces ever getting to No 1), that it has spawned eight CDs, a book - and now this, in collaboration with Britain’s fourth bestselling magazine, Radio Times.

There are six categories: composer, soloist, male singer, female singer, opera and film score. There is no free vote anywhere: for each category, you have to choose from a shortlist of 10, drawn up by a panel of unidentified “experts”. These individuals have decided that John Barry’s music for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is worthy of inclusion, but not Max Steiner’s for Gone with the Wind or Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard’s for Gladiator. They think Russell Watson, “the people’s tenor” of current fame, should be there, but not Jussi Bjoerling. The hand of the record industry, which Classic FM strongly supports, can be discerned here.

In addition, the shortlists do not always reflect what listeners have already freely chosen. For example, only four of the operas in the shortlist (two by Mozart and two by Puccini) are in the Hall of Fame’s top 10 operas. And, taking the composers who have written the 20 most popular pieces in the Hall of Fame, nine of them (Barber, Bruch, Grieg, Handel, Holst, Jenkins, Pachelbel, Rachmaninov and Vivaldi) have now been wholly ignored.

Classic FM declined to say why there is no free vote. “By their nature, shortlists generate discussion and debate,” says the station’s managing director, Darren Henley. “In your own words, shortlists are a necessary balance of ‘a matter of opinion’ and ‘a bit of luck’. At the end of the day, we are inviting, not forcing, people to vote. We are delighted that the poll has got people talking about classical music.”

Voting is via Classic’s web-site this month. I voted last week, because of the chance to back Bach (who has made the final cut, fortunately) and to enter a draw to win a box at the Albert Hall in September, a month after the winners are announced on air. At least it will all make Nigel Kennedy happy - he is at the Proms this week, and on the soloists’ shortlist, and has his picture on the front cover of, surprise, surprise, Radio Times.

paul.donovan@sunday-times.co.uk

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