On Forgotten Masters

On Forgotten Masters
June 8, 2020 leonard slatkin

I am old enough to have been in personal contact with so many great composers of their day. Copland, Stravinsky, Harris, and others were part of my childhood musical experience. What happened to the other writers of that time? I would bet that each of you can think of someone who made an impression on you but has been overlooked today.

For this chapter, I consider how we might resurrect the works of these composers and place them back into the repertoire. This is not to be dismissive of the new, but to broaden the spectrum of what is presented to the performers and the audience. We tend to be comfortable with the familiar and even accept more easily the new. But how do we preserve what came before but is little known?

What do you think?