# Favorite album(s) featuring a musician that is NOT a pianist, violinist, or singer?



## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

What is your favorite album (or albums) featuring a musician that is NOT a pianist, violinist, or singer?

Off the top of my head I would give two:









The Saint-Saens clarinet sonata is an absolute delight and the other works are great too. Friedli's playing is buoyant, soulful, with a clear, inviting sound.









Thomas Steven's trumpet playing is perfect. The whole disc is wonderful, but the Hindemith Sonata is the shining star. The last movement chorale is has such a velvety depth. I consider it the definitive recording of this work.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Peter Hurford - Bach's organ works (this box and the others).


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

What is your favorite album (or albums) featuring a musician that is NOT a pianist, violinist, or singer?

For solo cello:
















Minus the tracks featuring the _Duet for Cello and Violin_

For solo guitar:

















For brass (trombones):


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

There's too many to put any one above another, so I could not say which is my favorite. But I like this quite a bit.

Elliott Carter - Cello Concerto


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Ernst Kernek - Kitharaulos

With a heroic oboe performance from James Ostryniec.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

It will be something with a cello or guitar, of course. The couplings Du Pré and Elgar, and John Williams and Rodrigo come immediately to mind.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Dennis Brain's unmatchable recording of the Mozart horn concertos.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

What about Steven Isserlis and Bach Cello Suites????


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Maybe the OP means recital or mixed albums, not one-composer stuff ...


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Heinz Holliger, French oboe concertos, Philips


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

_Concierto Para Bandoneon_ by *Astor Piazzolla*
Lalo Schifrin, Orchestra of St. Luke's

View attachment 151903


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

A collection of albums, really...


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

So we need some clarification here. I thought that the recording couldn't include piano, violin or voice at all; as opposed to a piece that may have piano, violin(s), or voices, but not center-stage.


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

Coach G said:


> So we need some clarification here. I thought that the recording couldn't include piano, violin or voice at all; as opposed to a piece that may have piano, violin(s), or voices, but not center-stage.


if the piano (or other instruments) are accompaniment then that is in the spirit of the OP


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Alisa's Dvorak CD


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Sax Drive!


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

20centrfuge said:


> if the piano (or other instruments) are accompaniment then that is in the spirit of the OP


In that case there are too many works for cello to mention: cello concertos (by the likes of Dvorak, Elgar, Shostakovich, Barber, etc); other orchestral orchestral works that feature the cello (such as _Don Quixote_ by Richard Strauss, _Cello Symphony_ by Britten, Tavener's _Wake Up and Die_, and _Song of Orpheus_ by William Schuman); and sonatas for cello and piano (by Brahms, Grieg, Hovhaness, Shostakovich, Barber, Britten, etc) are innumerable. When you add the guitar concertos by Rodrigo, Villa-Lobos, and Castelnuovo-Tedesco, it creates an even larger filed to choose from.

So I'm just going to leave out the cello and guitar, as well as the piano, violin, and voice; and showcase the works of *Paul Hindemith* for brass and for viola:

















The first 2-CD set features sonatas for trumpet and piano, trombone and piano, tube and piano, and horn and piano by members of the Philadelphia Brass Ensemble accompanied by late, great, and slightly eccentric Glenn Gould.

The second 2-CD set features sonatas for viola and piano, and sonatas for viola alone played by concert violist, Kim Karshkashian (not to be confused with Kim Kardashian with a "d" of reality TV fame).

In the book, _Who's Afraid of Classical Music?_, Michael Walsh identified Hindemith as an academic composer who composed about a zillion sonatas that no one ever listens to, for every combination of instruments. And to a certain extent this is true. But I think that if you concentrate on the works featured in the CDs above, give the music an even chance, and allow yourself more than one (or two or three) listens, you'll see that Hindemith is a wonderful craftsman whose musical visions just celebrates the full potential of the instrument being showcased.


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