It`s Samuel Barber`s 100th birthdate-”Adagio for Strings” time!

The Adagio for Strings is everywhere! March 9th was Samuel Barber`s (1910-1981), the composer of the Adagio for Strings, centenary year. You probably best remember the piece from Oliver Stone`s 1986 film Platoon, about the Vietnam War. David Lynch used it in Elephant Man as well.

Arturo Toscanini premiered it with the NBC Orchestra in 1938. Toscanini had memorized the enchanting string work after Samuel Barber sent him the score. I believe you can still get this original inspired performance. The Adagio is used at many funerals too; but was not used at Franklin Roosevelt`s, as the rumor goes. However, when they first announced his death on the radio, they were playing the Adagio for Strings.

For just $9.99 you can get 29 works of Samuel Barber on itunes. This includes the Adagio. The 100th Anniversary of Samuel Barber Adagio, on EMI. There`s a stillness and distance in the strings, as if a tragedy has just occurred, and you`re trying to make sense of it… *(the image is by Carl Van Vechten, from The Library of Congress, Prints and Photographic Division)