What is the BEST CD out there that has the Disney themes played with instruments only? In other words, I am not looking for the actual movie versions, complete with singing and all that.
Do you mean original orchestrations or rerecordings? Most Disney compilations are songs centric. Eric Kunzel has done some rerecording's of Disney themes.
If I remember correctly, the Kunzel rerecordings also have vocals - as do the Silva/CoPPO versions of some of the songs, and a few other Pops-ish albums of Disney songs.
You'd be best served with this series of official Disney Karaoke - instrumental versions of the songs (preceded by demonstrative vocal tracks)
The only rerecording I can think of off the top of my head, which would have zero vocals (and which is arranged so as to not accomodate vocals) is John Williams/LSO's "Colors of the Wind" from Pocahontas, available on "The Hollywood Sound." It's lovely.
How about the Chandos Film Music series, among which are suites (broken into cues) from at least the following films.....
IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS (Alwyn) SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON (Alwyn) GREYFRIAR'S BOBBY (Chagrin) THE SWORD AND THE ROSE (Parker) TREASURE ISLAND (Parker)
all reconstructed and in stereo, with Rumon Gamba conducting the (mostly) BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
I'm assuming the OP is looking for instrumentals from the specific films where vocals are quite prominent. Though those might be technically from Disney they aren't exactly the same thing. I've been a bit disappointed as well that there doesn't seem to be any such CD that has orchestral suites from the big Disney films without vocals. (For example, the Kunzel CD has The Lion King, Aladdin, Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast). All of these films have great scores but most everything from them is in song format.
I don't believe there is a single "best" disc out there that represents what you're looking for, unfortunately.
If you're willing to explore several discs or settle for one that covers some but not all of this vast territory, several good suggestions have been posted...I would add the following:
Disney Parks music comes the closest to what I think you're looking for, in good to excellent quality sound. The above set is apparently in high demand now judging by asking prices. You can get smaller sets more easily but they may only have a couple of instrumental versions at most.
My favorite instrumental version of a Disney song is John Williams' rendition of "When You Wish Upon A Star," incorporated into the end titles of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and available on the soundtrack.
There is also Arthur Fiedler's "Salute To Disney" album with the Boston Pops. Unfortunately, half of the tracks are classical pieces used in Fantasia.
Other than that, the original motion picture soundtracks often have extensive underscore and title cues which contain orchestra-only versions of the main songs. Not cheap if you have to buy lots of soundtracks but single track downloads from iTunes/amazon should allow you to assemble a nice collection piece by piece. The true classics from the 30s-60s sound fine to me but not to everyone. Best of luck! Ben
