Walter Meyer, in response to my comment,

>>Many pieces that some have admired may never be heard again.  Other
>>presently obscure works may become popular and critically acclaimed.
>
>Possibly.  But weren't most of the works from earlier years that are
>popular today already popular when they were written?

Since you quoted both parts of my statement let me defend both parts.
Back in the 1930's Roy Harris' Third Symphony was immensely popular with
audiences.  Aside from the recordings by Bernstein has anyone here ever
heard it performed? I don't know if we will get the chance or not, but it
might have a rebirth, the way Sibelius' symphonies rise and fall in general
esteem.  The Shapero symphony I keep bringing up was never exactly popular
but it was once on Schwann's Basic Recordings list.  No kidding.  I still
own a copy of that.  The symphony has been publicized a couple of times
over the years and Andre Previn performed it widely a few years ago, to
strong audience approval; he stopped playing it, saying other conductors
ought to take it up.  Have they? I don't think so.  But they might.  Virgil
Thomson's Symphony on a Hymn Tune and Randall Thompson's Second Symphony
are "popular" in style, to a fault, some might say.  I'm not sure the
Thomson has ever been played by a major orchestra.  Jarvi, among others,
has played the Thompson, but it isn't standard repertoire yet.  Why isn't
it? Will it ever be? Why not? On the other hand, many works that have been
critically praised, such as those of Carter, to give one example, may
possibly never be played in the 21st century.  Ditto for George Rochberg's
Second Symphony, which the Cleveland Orchestra played.  I'm not saying they
shouldn't be, just that they might not be heard of again except by
musicologists.

Walter's question gets a yes answer, but that is irrelevant.  There
are so many works written and even premiered today that never get played
more than one weekend, in one place.  How many of us have managed to hear
anything by Melinda Wagner who won the Pulitzer Prize last time? How many
have heard anything by Quincy Porter who won the Pulitzer decades ago? Has
Rabushka's wonderful Harp Concerto ever gotten more than one butchered
performance in his own country? (Sorry to touch a sore point, Aaron.) There
are lots of works I know that I am sure that audiences would love if given
a chance--and if they would give themselves a chance, by demanding that
conductors play different, unknown, in effect obscure works from the past
and present that would appeal, in other words if they would act more like
classical audiences of the past or popular audiences of the present.  Maybe
they will in the coming century.  Cultural groups do renew themselves from
time to time.

Jim Tobin