Thanks for that Andrew, it reinforces a worrying notion, unfortunately true I think, that music itself might be a minor factor in its own chance at perpetuity. Other aspects to do with personality, society, economics and sheer luck, seem to hold power of arbitration in the matter. Would we be listening to Bach at all without Mendelssohn, to Alkan and Henselt without Llewenthal and a couple of others ? Joplin now has legendary status, being termed the Chopin of America by reputable musicians, but would it have happened excluding the chance event of someone wanting music to accompany a film ? I am very fond of the piano music of Frank Bridge, John Ireland, and Arnold Bax, and the remarkable symphonic work of Havergal Brian and Gerald Finzi, but all these seem to have become a good deal more obscure in recent years. It can go either way, and for all the wrong reasons.
Thalberg - an appraisal