Barber's Adagio / Munch, Galway, Boston SO Strings

Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings is a powerful piece, packed with emotional intensity yet also extraordinarily listenable--and popular. Here, Barber's short masterwork of simplicity and resonance gets eight treatments, from those he approved of (Charles Munch and the strings of the Boston Symphony; the Tokyo String Quartet; organist David Pizarro; and the Smithsonian Chamber Players) to new interpretations that don't quite match with the older renditions.

James Galway's new flute-and-synthesizer reading is a bit anemic, though thankfully not showy, and the Canadian Brass's arrangement is likewise tempered and calm, even if not very close to having significant bite. Richard Stoltzman and the Kalman Clarinet Choir probably do the best job of taking Barber to new places; the woody tones mesh almost polyphonically. Also included is the Choir of Trinity College's reading of Agnus Dei, Barber's choral setting of the Adagio, a distillation that might well be the high point of the CD. For the most stunning rendition of the Adagio, however, listeners should really hear the Thomas Schippers version. --Andrew Bartlett Amazon.com

What I've been looking for!

I have loved this piece of music for ages and one day heard that the Trinity Choir did it...I wanted to collect all the different Arrangements but they wud have to been bought in big collections and sets of sonatas/etc... So this CD is perfect...it combines the best settings of this wonderful piece together on one CD...quality is flawless and its a major contribution to my classical repetoire... September 12, 2007

Familiarity Breeding Contentment

If there is a single composition by which American composer Samuel Barber (1910 - 1981) is universally known, it is the Adagio for Strings, arranged, at Toscanini's request, in 1938, two years after it was originally written as the slow movement of Barber's only String Quartet Op. 11. Here are no less than five "authorized" versions by Barber himself -- the original, for Quartet; the Adagio, for String Orchestra; the version for Organ; the version for Chamber Orchestra; and Agnus Dei, a 1967 setting of the last part of the Latin Mass for a cappella choir to the music of the Adagio -- as well as three other arrangements, for Clarinet choir, for Brass choir and for Flute and Synthesizer. Eminently satisfying and one only wishes there were notes to explain which version (aside from the Quartet movment, 1936; the Adagio, 1938; and the Agnus Dei, 1967) came just when. Charles Munch and the Strings of the Boston Symphony Orchestra give a classic performance of the Adagio in its most familiar form while the Tokyo String Quartet unveils the seldom-heard original version that was responsible for all the rest.

In a little under three years' time (March 9, 2010) we will be celebrating the centennial of Barber's birth and, since March 1999, Naxos has been recording the music of this pre-eminent American composer. So far, all the orchestral works (including works for soloist and orchestra, works orchestrated from another medium, Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and the chamber opera A Hand of Bridge), the published works for piano, choral works, and the opera Vanessa have been committed to disc. Chamber works, songs, works for band, other keyboard works etc. are hopefully soon to follow. Although this disc, featuring the Adagio in its varied forms, is not part of this collection, hopefully hearing it will encourage those unfamiliar with Barber to explore more of his music. April 16, 2007

An American Icon of Classical Music

If you only listen to one classical song in your life hark Adagio for Strings. October 10, 2006

I'll have a number 4 when you bury me, please!

LOVE this music. It moves me. Plucks strings I did not know ran through my soul. Makes me feel the sadness of loss but keeps alive the hope of new doors to be opened, more life to experience.
We buried my Uncle, a fine kind-hearted man this Wednesday, they played the ubitquitous "Amazing Grace" when had they asked me, I would have had them hear this and pull them from the path they know so well. Open their eyes and spirit. Feel all the emotions of that day. Buy this for the quiet time when you need to think not what to do, but who you are and whence come. April 8, 2006

The BEST

This is the very same "song" done about ten diffent ways, and every one of them is fantastic. If you like ANYTHING about classical music, you should buy this CD. September 7, 2005

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