Walter Meyer:

>Were any of the classical composers who are considered "great" today, in
>the sense of being listened to with some frequency, totally disdained and
>rejected in their lifetime? I can't think of any....
>If there's no counterexample to my suspicion, is there a disturbing lesson
>to be drawn from this by composers who suspect they may not be getting
>sufficient recognition and hearing?

I am not such a composer, but one disturbing lesson might be that
unrecognized composers of the past simply never did get "discovered."
Perhaps all of their works perished with them.  Schubert's Great C Major
symphony might never have seen the light of day, if Schumann had not dug
it up at a time when Schubert's other work was known.  Brahms destroyed a
couple of concerti because of reactions to the ones that were performed.

As for today's composers, part of their problem is that there are so very
many good ones that it is easy to overlook or ignore many of them who might
be highly and widely appreciated if given the chance.

Jim Tobin