I have no idea what the criteria for “main” is. Personally, I don’t listen much to artists plagued with opportunistic out of copyright publishers. So that is a solution to a problem I don’t have. What “main” means to me in ordinary English with the genres I listen to is generally regarded important “interpretations” by that artist. Copyright or surface noise is not something I would pay much attention to. It is similar to regarding the mastering as much more important than the bit rate.
I am concerned that the BnF catalogue is now being diced and sliced into numerous categories making browsing that much harder. Maybe I will notice something similar with other Classical historical and re-issue labels. I don’t know yet.
My point was that if a living artist releases an album under their own guidance, for which they or their official label owns the rights, and which the artist considers a part of their canonical works, I can’t see how this could be anything but Main.
But you wrote that "I usually find that recordings of classical works, conducted or played by the living composer are not their best. They are often academic curiosities that are precisely what I would put in “More From”. "
Personally, I would not be happy if I had to dig for official, main albums in that scrap bin.
Yeah and I added mine. I regarded our discussion as an interesting one about a complex topic. Not every engaged discussion with different views about an interesting and complex topic must be taken as quarrel