The posts on this thread have raised the following question with me.

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.

Even Schubert, who may never have heard a concert performance of any of
his works, was recognized in his life and at his death.  And while the
congregation of the Thomaskirche may have exploited J.S.  Bach, there's no
question that the man's reputation extended beyond the confines of Leipzig,
extending even to the royal court.  Handel, Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart,
were spared obscurity in their lifetimes.  During the era of Romantic
music, Weber and Mendelssohn, Brahms and Tchaikovsky, Schuman, Chopin, and
Liszt, Wagner and Verdi all lived to see their works listened to and liked
by their contemporaries.  In our day, Bartok, Prokoffiev, and Shostakovich
were recognized in their lifetimes.  And even the more suppressed Soviet
composers, like Denisov, Gubaidulina, Schnittke, were considered important
enough to suppress and have now come into their own.

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?

Walter Meyer