'In modo di canzona': If it's singing we aim to talk about, how come we're listening to 'Le Tombeau de Couperin'? (Part 1)

Hints: It has to do with: (1) a birthday-gift concert of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and (2) the 2013 Carnegie Hall master class of master oboist Albrecht Mayer

Note: Updated with some expansions and Sunday Classics links,
notably in the section on the Brahms First Symphony

What is it?
The oboe is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family. It has a conical bore and a flaring bell, which gives it a clear, penetrating voice compared to other woodwind instruments. A person who plays the oboe is an oboist.

[from the Manning Music website]

by Ken

And not just Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin, which I can reveal was included (in an unexpected form) in the above-hinted-at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center concert, which set off this whole line of inquiry. No, for reasons that will eventually become clear (though perhaps only clearish this week), we've also got music by Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Rossini, none of it with any singing -- and never mind (maybe?) that all four of these are composers for whom vocal music was a prime concern.

At least there's no singing in the literal vocal sense. Consider this, however:

TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36:
ii. Andantino in modo di canzona


London Symphony Orchestra, George Szell, cond. Decca, recorded September 1962

RIAS Symphony Orchestra (Berlin), Ferenc Fricsay, cond. DG, recorded Sept. 9-10, 1952

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Litton, cond. Virgin Classics, recorded 1988-91


AT THIS MOMENT, THIS IS MY FAVORITE MUSICAL
DIRECTION: "ANDANTINO IN MODO DI CANZONA"