[premont]

My preferred version is the same as SanAntone:

This is also my preferred version. But IIRC you wasn't that keen about it not so long time ago.

 

[premont]

Caccini, Giulio: Toccata per Spinettina, e Violino
Caccini, Giulio: Toccate d'Intavolature di Cimbale e Organo

Never heard of keyboard works by Caccini. Aren't you mixing something up?

Other than that I second Mandryka's Titelouze recommendation. And Titelouze also wrote some liturgical music of high quality.

 

[premont]

David Thomas, I think.

You are right about this.

https://www.discogs.com/release/6873117-Dowland-The-Consort-Of-Musicke-A-Pilgrimes-Solace-1612

 

[premont]

Louis Couperin's organ music is not, I think, the best way in to his music.

Recall that it has been questioned if the Louis Couperin organ music and harpsichord music has been composed by the same person. They are indeed very different from each other.

There's just one recording which has made me see the point of Nivers' music - with Kei Koito and Dominique Vellard.

Thanks, I shall try to investigate this if possible.

Edit: This one?
https://www.prestomusic.com/classic...s-orgue-j-boizard-a-saint-michel-en-thierache

 

[premont]

Yes that's the Nivers.

I once read something by Davitt Moroney where he said that there's more evidence that the organ music is by Louis Couperin than there is that the harpsichord music is by Louis Couperin. I will keep out of the debate!

Yes, and this is surprising, since one should think, that the harpsichord music was composed by someone close to Froberger (Louis Couperin), while the organ music has very little in common with Froberger's organ music.

 

[premont]

I think Corelli was at the beginning of the most significant deterioration in the history of classical music. Classical music doesn't really thoroughly recover until the middle of the 20th century.

Highly provocative statement equally provocative as this:

Art in Classical Didn't Start till Romanticism

That's when composers really started expressing depth in their music rather than being commissioned to create music for an event.
That's my opinion, what do you think?

 

[premont]

Premont, do you think the Biber sonatas are more contrapuntally interesting than the Corelli op 5?

Neither Biber's violin sonatas nor Corelli's violin sonatas contain much real counterpoint, and essentially they are homophonic = melody (often very elaborated) and accompaniment (basso continuo). The keyboard player may in both cases add some perfunctory counterpoint, but this doesn't essentially change the music. And of course a baroque melody is meant to be played in way that it express the presumed affect of the piece. This leads to rhetorical - theatrical if you want - playing, just in the same way an actor on stage displays a character different from himself.

In renaissance music and in much baroque music the primary interest was in the counterpoint, which was designed to display the desired affects, and therefore the region of interest wasn't just the "melody" as such, but rather how is was used in the polyphonic web. This is also why instruments with excessive expressive powers were without great interest in the renaissance and baroque ages. They only needed to clarify the counterpoint. All this was more or less lost, when homophony took over in some baroque music and in classical and romantic music. This is why more expressive instruments were needed. One may call this decadence, but it is just another way of expression. Some are captivated by a melting melody, others prefer contrapuntal music. I belong to the latter.

 

[premont]

I am not sure "Claudio Columbo" is a real pianist. The recordings sound like MIDI versions.

Sure, my impression too, and for that reason my interest in his encyclopaedic discography is limited.

 

[premont]

Actually I just used the list to listen to something I haven’t heard in like, 30 years. Some Sor etudes. I remember having a recording with Segovia playing, but for no good reason I just plumped for another old timer, Narciso Yepes. I must say, I was really impressed by Yepes this evening, there’s something really objective about his way of playing which appeals to me this evening. I remember his trademark was the Rodriguez concerto - I don’t know if I’ve ever heard it.

As far as Sor’s music is concerned, I honestly can’t see what the fuss is about. I mean, it may be more interesting to play than to hear.

Once at a recital I saw (and heard) Segovia play Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez. I have never felt the desire to hear it again. So it may be a classical example of music which is more interesting to play than to listen to.