Part of it, culturally, is that there's a disconnect in classical music between the performer and the piece of music. Even with pop music where the performer did not write their music, they'll still always be linked to it. Keith Urban IS every song that he's ever recorded. Jay Z IS every song that he's ever recorded. Every piece of music that Bell has recorded has also been recorded by dozens if not hundreds of other performers. Even jazz, which is based on standards, has a heavy improvisational element that allows a skilled performer to let their own 'sound' come through, so that an informed listener will immediately be able to differentiate between Wynton Marsalis or Dizzy Gillespie. Even an informed but casual fan of classical music is going to have difficulty if asked to listen to recordings of a particular standard and identify what virtuoso is playing each version.
And despite the fact that you can't really emphasize the individual performer, it would be hard to get pedestrians to stop based on the piece of music alone. If you select something popular (say, a typical Bartok or Bach or Beethoven piece), then you're playing exactly what every other classical violin busker is playing. But if you play something obscure and difficult, then few people will recognize what you're playing and they won't be interested.
I know that if I was going through the subway and I heard someone playing the Bach piece that Bell was playing, I probably wouldn't stop to listen because it's not a style of classical music that I love, and while I could identify the music as difficult, I wouldn't be able to identify the actual piece. But if someone were playing something like an Arvo Part fratre or something else contemporary and eastern-european, or a Piazzolla tango, I definitely would stop and listen, even if the caliber of musician was more music student than virtuoso.
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