Why are so many great works so rarely heard?
It’s always important to question consensus. It’s not that there’s nothing positive about everyone agreeing, but when they do, there’s always the chance that an alternative view has got pushed out. It applies particularly to art. Cultural history is full of examples of music, architecture or paintings that were collectively ignored (even in some cases derided) only to be subsequently declared significant. Just think of Pre-Raphaelite art. Often that change comes about due to a plucky champion: Leonard Bernstein and the music of Mahler in the US comes to mind, or John Betjeman and Victorian architecture in the UK. That latter example is well worth pondering every time a piece of mid-20th-century modernism is condemned to the wrecking ball. Luckily such destructive decisions don’t need to be made with eminently…
