“”Wow…”" What more can one say about Barber’s Adagio for Strings? Indeed, how much could one say about it before? I cannot find an appropriate way to describe this music. It is as if all of the holiness of Heaven, or of the sacred ‘om,’ was compressed into a song lasting nary 8 or 9 minutes. It is melancholic without seeming at all sad, like dying without grief or despair. It brings forth tears stemming from an emotion that, like the song itself, defies description.

All that I just wrote is merely language; the only way to know anything about Adagio is to hear it for yourself. This CD holds some of the finest recordings of Barber’s famous work. Start off with the first track, and hear the song using its most gut-wrenching arrangement: the string orchestra. Listen to the track in its entirety; you will reach emotional peaks that can’t be found with any other song. Then, listen to the choral arrangement. This track alone is worth twice the cost of the CD. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more…

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Product Description

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

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……more info

Beautiful
I am amazed that in all of the reviews of this Cd, no one even mentioned David Pizarro’s fantastic performance of Barber’s Adagio on the organ. To me, it is a powerful performance, and at least deserves mention….more info

Emotional flow
This piece listened to in the dark while contemplating your day or your life can bring out deeply buried feelings not yet experienced. I found the tears shed while listening to this were far from depressing, possibly a cleansing of a undiscovered region of my soul. Highly recommended!…more info