Minkowski DVD is fantastic, in all aspects: singing, acting, staging. One of best opera on DVDs I've ever watched.
Minkowski on CD I haven't heard, but are there that many choices?
Agnew and Rousset, neither commercially released as far as I know.
Malgoire, who's never been a favorite of mine in anything or 70 year old Rosbaud.
I'll take your word on Minkowski (I do love his recording of Hippolyte et Aricie) and I didn't know about the Rousset, I'll give it a try, thanks!
I don't think it is an interesting result or even "musicological" in the normal sense of that word that Bach is "greater" than Rameau. You will hardly find a research paper on such topics and I cannot imagine a university level course on 18th century music neglecting Rameau (or having as take-home-message "Bach > Rameau")
Who debated such stuff on a panel? One would seriously hope that scholars would refuse even entering into such moot debates.
I don't know much about Rameau but it seems without a doubt that he was a very important composer and, as has been pointed out, very influential both for post-baroque opera and for music theory.
His influence on French music, even as late as the late 19th century might be comparable to that of Bach on Mendelssohn or Brahms.
Whereas Vivaldi influence had already waned within his own lifetime. His central achievement was the high baroque concerto form that was basically copied by Bach (sometimes almost literally) and other composers. But he was almost forgotten before he was dead.
Indeed. One should not underestimate Rameau's influence on the history of music. Of course, if Rameau had not been influential at all I would still think that the quality of his works puts him among the greatest of Baroque composers without a doubt. All of his operas have not been recorded yet, so the reappraisal of his music is not over and in fact it's growing, with recordings of his works more frequent than ever. I do think his popularity will not quite approach that of Bach, Handel and Vivaldi if only because most of his best work is opera, a genre that even many lovers of classical music dislike (although suites from his operas are quite popular, it's still not the real deal). But he's already recognized by many academics as a major player, now the music itself is catching up.
