Album

A best-selling collection of some of the most popular Adagios ever written for strings, this album is a staple of Sony's catalog and a logical choice for the Masterworks Expanded Edition. While this CD corresponds to the same title in the Great Performances series, its sound is remastered and the additional tracks make it a better value for the price. Leonard Bernstein and the strings of the New York Philharmonic are elegiac and solemn in these performances, extremely slow and often more lush than is really necessary. However, this broad, hyper-Romantic approach is part of Bernstein's controversial legacy, and his exaggerated interpretations of Barber's Adagio, Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Tchaikovsky's Andante cantabile, and Mahler's Adagietto from the Symphony No. 5 are so entrenched in the public's imagination that dissenting criticism is almost pointless. Even so, Bernstein's labored versions of Mozart's Romance from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Vivaldi's Largo from the "Winter" Concerto are still open for debate. Recorded at Columbia Studios, Avery Fisher Hall, and the Manhattan Center between 1963 and 1976, the varied acoustics and limitations of the analog tapes are substantially improved through Direct Stream Digital and SBM Direct.

© Blair Sanderson, All Music Guide

CD 1
Samuel Barber Composer Adagio for Strings (arr. of 2nd mvmt. of String Quartet), Op.11 Work Recorded 1971 New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein Conductor
1	Adagio for Strings (arr. of 2nd mvmt. of String Quartet), Op.11	9:54			$0.99
Ralph Vaughan Williams Composer Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, for 2 string orchestras Work Recorded 1976 New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein Conductor
2	Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, for 2 string orchestras	18:04			$2.97
Ralph Vaughan Williams Composer Greensleeves (from the opera 'Sir John in Love'), folk song for chorus Work Recorded 1969 New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein Conductor
3	Greensleeves (from the opera 'Sir John in Love'), folk song for chorus (arr.harp, flute and strings)	5:00			$0.99
Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky Composer String Quartet No.1 in D, Op.11...String Quartet No.1 in D, Op.11 (arr. orchestra) Work Recorded 1975 New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein Conductor
4	2.Andante cantabile	9:26			$0.99
Gustav Mahler Composer Symphony No.5 in C#- Work Recorded 1963 New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein Conductor
5	4.Adagietto. Sehr langsam	11:05			$1.98
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Composer Serenade in G, K.525 ('Eine Kleine Nachtmusik'; 'A Little Night Music') Work Recorded 1973 New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein Conductor
6	2.Romance: Andante	6:30			$0.99
Antonio Vivaldi Composer L'inverno (Winter) in F-, RV297, Op.8, No.4 Work Recorded 1964 New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein Harpsichord, John Corigliano Sr. Violin
7	2.Largo	2:17			$0.99
Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky Composer Serenade for Strings (or piano, 4 hands) in C, Op.48 Work Recorded 1970 New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein Conductor
8	3.Élégie	10:50			$1.98