Instruments of the orchestra, yes, but not just instruments in the orchestra. This is a set of portraits in depth, featuring individual instruments in many contexts (orchestral, chamber, folk, solo, operatic, cinematic, even jazz and avant-garde music) and in pieces from the Middle Ages to the present. Joining regular members are such exotic visitors as the eerie ondes martenot, the wind machine, banjos, bagpipes, coconuts, typewriters, six-shooters, taxi horns, and migrating swans ? and the hundreds of examples range from illustrative snippets to entire movements. The first CD is devoted entirely to the violin, and the last to the greatest instrument at all, the orchestra itself.
