Posterity is cruelly haphazard towards composers. A lucky few geniuses are recognised in their own lifetime. Beethoven, Josquin, Wagner, Mozart, all entered posterity wearing their laurels, and they stayed there, serene and untouchable. Others are not so lucky. Some fine composers wait decades or even centuries after their death to be rediscovered, like Charpentier. Some disappear even before their own deaths. Think of Vivaldi, once the best-known composer in Europe. He died a pauper in Vienna, and languished in obscurity for almost three centuries afterwards.
Changing fashion and sheer bad luck are what buried these composers. But in other cases ideology lends a hand, energetically ...............
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