Classic FM

278 cellists playing ‘Adagio for Strings’ from 29 countries is everything the world needs

This is wonderful – 278 cellists, all recording from their homes, play Barber’s Adagio for Strings while many concert halls around the world remain closed. We’re all missing the power, excitement and ...
Classic FM

What’s the piece of classical music in Mobb Deep’s Down For You?

Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings has become one of the most sampled and reimagined classical pieces in modern music, particularly within dance music, hip-hop and trance. And now it’s been used by ...
Gramophone

Barber's Adagio for Strings – a quick guide to the best recordings

This is a beautiful collection of American music, lovingly and brilliantly performed. With Barber’s Adagio you might fear that Bernstein would ‘do a Nimrod’ and present it with exaggerated ...
BBC

From Sadness to Joy: Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings’

In 2004, a competition by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme set out to find “the saddest music in the world” and was won by Barber’s Adagio for Strings – receiving 52% of the public votes, ahead of ...
The New York Times

An Adagio for Strings, and for the Ages

Performances in N.Y.C. Advertisement Supported by By Johanna Keller SAMUEL BARBER’S Adagio for Strings begins softly, with a single note, a B flat, played by the violins. Two beats later the lower ...
Seattle Times

‘The Saddest Music Ever Written’: Samuel Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings,’ deconstructed

This new book about Samuel Barber’s famous, eloquently mournful “Adagio for Strings” is 262 pages long. About one-fourth of those pages are eminently worthy of the music lovers’ careful attention. In ...