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| | Barber's Adagio / Munch, Galway, Boston SO Strings | | | Music Style : | | General | | Record Label : | | RCA | | Release Date : | | 1997-05-20 | | Store Price : | | $7.99 | | Artistopia's Price: $7.98 | | Usually ships in 24 hours | | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Adagio for strings (or string quartet; arr. from 2nd mvt. of String Quartet), Op. 11
2. Adagio for strings (or string quartet; arr. from 2nd mvt. of String Quartet), Op. 11
3. Adagio for strings (or string quartet; arr. from 2nd mvt. of String Quartet), Op. 11
4. Agnus Dei, for chorus (arr. from 2nd mvt. of String Quartet), Op. 11
5. Adagio for strings (or string quartet; arr. from 2nd mvt. of String Quartet), Op. 11
6. String Quartet in B major, Op. 11: Molto Adagio
7. Adagio for strings (or string quartet; arr. from 2nd mvt. of String Quartet), Op. 11
8. Adagio for strings (or string quartet; arr. from 2nd mvt. of String Quartet), Op. 11
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 How Do I Love Thee?
Submitted on: 2009-07-16 |
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If you think you really love the Barber Adagio, here is the CD that will put your devotion to the test. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
First track is the familiar Adagio for Strings version, here played by the strings of the Boston SO under Charles Munch. Very nice.
Second track is an arrangement for flute and synthesizer played by James Galway and Hiro Fujikake. Not bad--kind of interesting, actually.
Third track is an arrangement by the Canadian Brass. My least favorite on the CD, but I know these guys have a lot of fans.
The fourth track is the meltingly lovely choral version, here performed by the Choir of Trinity College under the direction of Richard Marlow. Sublime!
Track five is an arrangement for clarinets, featuring Richard Stoltzman and the Kalman Opperman Clarinet Choir. Lovely, lovely, lovely (but I'll admit to a little prejudice here--I'm an ex-clarinetist, and Richard Stoltzman is an ex-Buckeye).
Track six features the original version of this music, here played by the Tokyo String Quartet. When my wife heard this CD on the radio, she liked this arrangement the best, and I know better than to argue with my wife.
Track seven can be skipped by those with mini-monitors and/or single-ended triode contraptions: it's an arrangement for organ with some truly awesome pedal notes.
Track eight closes the circle by going back to a string orchestra arrangement, this time by the chamber-sized forces of the Smithsonian Chamber players under conductor Kenneth Slowik.
There you have it: 55 minutes and 47 seconds of nothing but the Barber Adagio. Yes, it's a marketing gimmick; no, I don't really care--I love it. How do I love it? Let me count the ways. First... |
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I love this CD
Submitted on: 2009-05-05 |
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| This CD (this is the 2nd copy I have bought of this CD, for a friend) has helped me through some rough times, including the death of my 4-year-old cat several years ago. Barber's Adagio is a beautiful piece, and having several different arrangements to choose from is wonderful. |
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What I've been looking for!
Submitted on: 2007-09-12 |
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| 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... |
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Familiarity Breeding Contentment
Submitted on: 2007-04-16 |
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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. |
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An American Icon of Classical Music
Submitted on: 2006-10-10 |
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| If you only listen to one classical song in your life hark Adagio for Strings. |
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