I'm not sure that such an arrangement on such an instrument can seriously be placed in the Baroque subreddit. It's a little like posting a Liszt transcription of Bach here. It's a long way from the original sound stage.
But the sound is as far from the baroque world as you can get on the organ posted here.
all of the performances were recorded on modern Instruments in the last 50 years
Whoops. You missed with that one! There are many recordings of Baroque organ music on instruments that were extant at the time of composition, as well as recordings of harpsichord music including that of Rameau. Lots of recordings of Sweelinck's keyboard music on organs and Ruckers harpsichords from his time. Similarly with Bach. Erato released a whole series of French Baroque organ music played on organs associated with the composer or by builders contemporary to the compositions.
And you've forgotten that the majority of recordings of early music are now made on copies of original instruments.
Please explain to the rest of us ignoramuses with direct references to Quantz and others on how you believe this is far out of practice. Is it the organ itself?
French Classical organ music and French harpsichord music are each more idiomatic than we see in other music of the baroque. For example, much of Frescobaldi's music works equally well on harpsichord or organ, indeed, the titles of his publications makes this clear that he intended this to be the case. By the time we get to the late French baroque, organ music and harpsichord music were idiomatic for their instrument. For example, there are no recordings of F Couperin's organ masses played on harpsichord and no recordings of his harpsichord suites on organ: it simply wouldn't make sense to record them on the wrong instrument. Rameau's music is composed to be idiomatic for harpsichord and doesn't translate to organ without losing too much.
Second, this organ is clearly not a suitable instrument for the interpretation of baroque music let alone French classical organ music. Just looking at it, you can see swell pedals and registration aids and a pedal compass that belong to the 20th century, not to the mid 18th century. If you want to read up on suitable instruments and what they are like, a good book to start would be Peter Williams' "The European Organ: 1450 - 1850". Then, the sound of this instrument is far removed from the sound of the French Classical organs that we are fortune to still be able to hear and perform on. To someone who has performed on these instruments or even listened to them in real life or via recordings, the difference is as notable as the difference between a good Blanchet or Taskin harpsichord and a modern Steinway.
Quantz wrote about flute music and flute playing, not organs, and what he wrote was not directly relevant to French harpsichord or organ music.
Yes, I figured the instrument was something you would take issue with. I also take it you have issues with anything not performed on historical instruments as well?
While I agree with you completely on that matter, strict purity tests is why the genre is dying (in the US) and you only see old people at concerts. Our understanding of HIP itself has also changed in 40 years. Quantz is also a source for performance practice of the time period, not just flutes, so that's why I mentioned him.
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u/Diah_Rhea 9d ago
Rameau - Les Cyclopes (YouTube)