Adagio for Strings

Available for 28 days

Donald Macleod explores Samuel Barber’s early beginnings as a composer during the 1930s. Composer of the Week explores the life and music of Samuel Barber, who is only considered one of the most expressive representatives of the Romantic trend in 20th-century classical music, as well as one of the most frequently performed American composers. His most famous score is his early Adagio for Strings; some of his other breakthrough include his Piano Sonata, and the opera Vanessa. Barber began studying piano from the age of six and started to compose from the age of seven. He went on to take composition lessons with Rosario Scalero at the Curtis Institute of Music and, from this point, he never looked back, quickly becoming one of America’s most famous composers. He wrote in many different genres, including chamber, vocal, orchestral and works for the stage, and often composed in response to significant and highly desirable commissions. He enjoyed close collaboration with the performers he wrote for, shaping his music to their individual styles and capabilities. Only towards the end of his life, when he was struggling with depression, alcoholism and also cancer, did his creative output slow. In the early 1930s, Samuel Barber was studying at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He’d originally auditioned as a pianist, and studied singing and composing too. As time went on, composing would prove to be the biggest attraction for him. One work he composed towards the end of his studies was Dover Beach, which has gone on to be regularly performed and recorded. During this period, Barber met fellow composer, Gian Carlo Menotti and they began a forty-year romantic relationship. It was whilst travelling around Italy with Menotti that Barber worked on his Cello Sonata. Another work composed on a European sojourn would become Barber’s most famous works, his Adagio for Strings. It became Barber’s calling card, and augured well for a composer at the start of his career. Overture to The School for Scandal New York Philharmonic Thomas Schippers, conductor Dover Beach, Op 3 Roderick Williams, baritone Coull Quartet Cello Sonata, Op 6 (Adagio - Presto) Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano Sure on this shining night, Op 13 No 3 Samantha Clarke, soprano Dylan Perez, piano Nocturne, Op 13 No 4 Samantha Clarke, soprano Dylan Perez, piano Adagio for Strings, Op 11 Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Simon Rattle, conductor Violin Concerto, Op 14 (excerpt) Johan Dalene, violin Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra Daniel Blendulf, conductor Produced by Luke Whitlock