best recordings for a sense of scale

Cowboy Junkies Trinity Sessions is the best non-classical or orchestra example that comes to mind.

Recorded in St Peter's cathedral I believe it has a very good sense of the space and the environment in which the recording took place.

There was also a follow up dvd made about 10-15 years later which showed the actual venue and had other famous musicians join the Cowboy Junkies and replay the album - included Natalie Merchant I think......

If you mean a good sense of space, then I would suggest Duke Ellington's "Jazz Party in Stereo".

http://www.amazon.co.uk/There-Are-Many-Sides-Night/dp/B000006XAU

Somewhat classical perhaps, but this live mostly acoustic guitar recording by Steve Hackett (former guitarist of (Genesis) really conveys the acoustics of the hall it was recorded in better than most recordings.

Oscar Peterson 6 at Montreux, for a nice jazz record on Pablo label. I could name many classical and opera selections, but you said you were uninterested.

I'd second The Trinity Sessions (both versions). I know you dissed the classical and opera, but if you have an exception for early music, there are a few recordings on Jordi Savall's label, Alia Vox, that were done in a Spanish castle, my favorite is with his wife, the soprano, Montserrat Figueras - "El Cant De La Sibil-La" has a majestic sense of scale and atmosphere. The tiresome audiophile darling, Jazz at the Pawnshop, has a great sense of atmosphere and you-are-there presence.

The question is a bit confusing in that the OP starts by asking about a sense of space, which is quite clear, and mainly what myself and others are responding to. But in a follow-up question speaks specifically of sense of "scale", which may lead one to think of the size of instruments and their placement in space (apart from the environment they're in). I can think of recordings that make a piano sound small and distant, and others that make it sound life-sized and in the room, for instance...neither happen to convey much about the atmosphere they are in in those particular cases, but the latter short piece DOES convey a wonderful sense of scale of a piano. I'm assuming this is not what the OP is after(?).