Marcus: Well i would like to believe that. But I do not think that there are any “Mute and inglorious” Beethoven’s out there. We really are producing nothing like the great golden age of classical music. Not at all.

And it is not for lack of trying. There are thousands of so called “Classical composers” out there, and a great many of them have great jobs as academics, etc. Few are in a garret somewhere.

The notion of the obscure composer unknown in his lifetime but then raised up to Parnassus after his death is mostly a myth. Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms were internationally known celebrities in their times.

There is a great hunger for excellent new music of the level of the the great age of Western Music. There does not seem to be much forthcoming.