I found this quote from Jean Paul’s book Ideen-Gewimmel, and though he meant it in terms of his relationship to authors through their works, I think that it’s equally applicable to composers, their works, and future performers and audiences:
How different and how wonderful is the friendship that can be forged with printed people – books – rather than with real ones! How loyally attached to us they remain when all else falls away, and how infinitely they can console us! How they are always the same, criticizing our weaknesses without committing weaknesses of their own! – And why should I not bring friends with me from the previous world, even though they have lost their bodies, but which contain all that is genuine, their soul? These friends alone have no sense of time, no self-interest, they are intimately related to us, part of our soul, two souls within one body. – Jean Paul, Ideen-Gewimmel (trans. Jens Malte Fischer).