By Néstor CASTIGLIONE

Fortune and fame: for many, the two most glittering prizes in human existence. But as most soon learn they are also the most difficult to attain. Even if seizesd in life, they can quickly slip from one’s grasp in death. For every Beethoven or Stravinsky in music, for example, there is a Hummel or Honegger whose works have somehow fallen by the wayside of the mainstream after enjoying wide appreciation. Yet these turns in destiny are sometimes not commensurate with a composer’s talent, which can be as great as their obscurity is unjust. Small wonder then that King Lear’s fool caustically referred to fortune as an “errant whore.”

Two programs, one this weekend, the other next week, will explore this phenomenon in depth.

The first is a Salastina Society concert on Saturday, March 24 entitled “Second Class Citizens.” The fame of some of the composers on the program, like Georges Enescu or Ottorino Respighi, are tantamount to being of the “one-hit wonder” variety, thereby ignoring a rich body of work that is worthy of being better known. Others enjoyed fame in their lifetimes, only to have it dashed posthumously. Most never even got that far. Yet all the composers on the program share one trait: Their music matters.

The Salastina Society program will take place at the Barrett Hall of the Pasadena Conservatory of Music (100 N. Hill Ave., Pasadena) at 8 p.m. Tickets are $32. To purchase or obtain more information, visit http://www.salastina.org/concerts or call (213) 332-6874.

Then next week from Thursday, March 29 through Sunday, April 1, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, under guest conductor Andrew Manze, will perform in Los Angeles for the first time in years the bitter “Symphony No. 6” by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Seventy years ago, conductors in America lined up to perform the works of Vaughan Williams. Koussevitzky, Stokowski, Mitropoulos, and Bernstein (among others) all performed and recorded the composer’s music regularly. Sir Adrian Boult, one of Vaughan Williams’ favorite conductors, even dedicated the world premiere recording of his “Symphony No. 9” to the memory of the composer and his “American friends.” (Vaughan Williams had died the night prior to the recording sessions.) Back when I was not quite yet 20, a musicologist friend once referred to meeting the composer in Los Angeles as one of the most memorable of his life.

“He was the greatest composer of the 20th century to me,” he recalled.

Yet today one finds that his music is seldom performed outside the British Isles.

At one point his “Symphony No. 6” caught the imaginations of listeners on both sides of the Atlantic. Dark and enigmatic, the symphony was taken to be a commentary on the world war that had ended only years before, as well as an ominous portent of the consequences of nuclear warfare. Andrew Manze, who currently is recording a survey of the composer’s symphonies, will bookend the work with music by Mozart and Grażyna Bacewicz.

The program will be performed from at Walt Disney Hall (111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles). For tickets and more information, visit https://www.laphil.com/events/performances/132/ or call the Disney Hall box office Tuesdays – Sundays, from noon to 6 p.m. at (323) 850-2000.

  Nestor CASTIGLIONE