His most loyal fans are trombone teachers and students, but Christian Lindberg deserves a much wider following, not only for his extraordinary technical gifts, but also for his refined and deeply felt interpretations of music from many periods. Classical Concertos is an excursion into charming eighteenth century works by Michael Haydn, Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, and Leopold Mozart second-tier composers, admittedly, but competent craftsmen who turned out admirable works for their day.

It has often been said that music is a universal language; it is not, though, universally understood as a mother tongue, it is only universally spoken thus. So one must always attempt to hear it like something new, not quite familiar with a tourist's perception. Let's travel, then, and imagine some interesting encounters, where a German Brahms would understand a French Saint-Saëns as much as a Russian Glière, where a Belgian Jongen would make himself understood to an Austrian Kreisler as much as to a British Elgar, and where a trombonist and a pianist would understand themselves mutually. The listener, then, will have the creative opportunity to impart these familiar and less familiar sounds with significance while surrendering to the sheer pleasure of their beauty.

Sing-Übung is the name given by Michael Massong to his debut recital on MDG, and the title contains a program: lyrical pieces, in large part especially arranged for this CD, display a vocal quality of trombone playing that is without its equal. The selection of works also holds some surprises in store: Rachmaninov's famous "Vocalise," the fine emotion of Carl Maria von Weber's "Romanze," and Franz Liszt's Romance oubliée," in which Michael Massong teases previously unheard-of vocal expressive depth out of his instrument. The prizewinning horn player Premysl Vojta performs the duo part in "Singübung," the title work by Franz Schubert, and in the four duets by Johannes Brahms.