Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings from String Quartet, Opus 11

I'm sorry to say that I had not heard of Samuel Barber until a few days ago when I heard a beautiful piece of music on the radio and checked the little screen 1 to see what it was. Adagio for Strings, Op. 11. Samuel Barber. I knew I wouldn't remember it, so I grabbed my little notepad and put it on my knee, got my pen, and wrote the information down without taking my eyes off of the road. And wonder of wonders, it was actually decipherable when I made it back home and went hunting for it. And listened to it from the start. Ah. I was right there with Romeo espying Juliet for the first time:  I never saw heard true beauty before tonight.” I listened to it several more times in succession. Such an amazing piece. It's the music I imagine playing when a soul ascends to heaven. So ethereal, so pure. And the faces of the musicians as they are playing . . . you can see how intense this is for them, too. They aren't even on the planet while they're playing this music.

And I haven't been posting links or doing embeds since Blog Resurrection awhile back, but in this case the video is posted by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (which is performing the piece) and they included an embed code, so this is totally on them:



Is that amazing, or what? Makes me want to hear more of this Samuel Barber fellow. Which is what I am going to do now.


1 Speaking of . . . when did this become a thing? Sure comes in handy. Now if only there were a way to rewind what the radio plays, like you can with a dvr . . . .