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Instruments of the Orchestra

Fellow classical music buffs, can any of you recommend a CD (or couple of CDs) that provide a good introduction to the instruments of the orchestra? What I have in mind would be a well-recorded demonstration of each instrument, from its highest to its lowest pitch, and possibly a brief musical example. Doesn't need to be long or elaborate. Also, here's a related question: can any of you recommend a musical reference book that gives the full frequency range of the fundamental tones of each instrument of the orchestra? Thanks.
texasdave
pragmatist
336 posts
 
To answer your second question,there are such charts in Psychology of Music by Carl Seashore.
gaudio_eek
312 posts
 
I second the recommendation of Britten's Young Persons Guide To The Orchestra.
texasdave OP
144 posts
 
Many thanks for the responses. Yes, I know Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and have had his recording of it for many years; it's fine but is not what I'm looking for here. Thanks for the Naxos suggestion, Rush; I should have known about that set but had overlooked it. I see you can buy the whole 7-CD set from Amazon.com marketplace sellers for only $23, so I've ordered it. It's a lot longer than what I was looking for, but I'm sure it will be well worth having. And thanks for the frequency-response charts information.
tpsonic
1,092 posts
 
Mercurys' "The composer and his orchestra" 2 CD set,also on TAS/HP list.
rcprince
3,074 posts
 
There was a disc called Stakatto, and probably another (Stakatto 2) which, in addition to things like telephones, breaking glass, cars, planes, bowling alleys and the like, also had a number of tracks featuring solo instruments, including different makes of pianos, double bass, etc. Well-recorded, too. Not quite what you're looking for, perhaps, but interesting.
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