The ‘trombone’ stop on the pipe organ can produce one of its most powerful, strident and intimidating sounds. Like all the stops that take their name from orchestral instruments, it caricatures only a single tone-colour of that instrument, in this case: low, reedy, penetrating, inexpressive and inevitably loud. By contrast, the trombone proper can be mellifluous, eloquent and expressive. The choice of music on this recording is designed to illustrate all these attributes, along with the instrument’s flexibility and agility, qualities not always apparent when heard in its usual context of symphony orchestra or opera-house. The trombone and the organ have always had ecclesiastical associations, from the 14th century to the present. Not until the 19th century, however, did composers think to combine the two instruments as a duo, and in music expressly designed for the concert hall. Of the eight works on the disc, only two are associated with religion, but all reveal the splendour and the sheer expressivity of this unusual combination. Alain Trudel is one of the world’s leading trombonists, and Patrick Wedd among the most versatile of keyboard accompanists, be it on the piano, harpsichord or organ.