A. Toscanini Conducts Adagio for Strings (Barber)

[SatchmoSings]

@tienphuc69 First of all, genius, there were draft laws in those days and they could have been amended to get rid of the college deferment.

Secondly, anytime you have to send in foreign troops to do what the South Vietnamese REFUSED to do for themselves, it's already a lost cause.

Harry Truman was accused of "losing" China to Communists; the one who really lost China to Communists was Chiang kai-Shek; Vietnam was the same thing, albeit on a smaller scale.

[SteveAndrewLangford]

This doesn't sound like the world premiere 1938 version; someone said it might be the '42, it sounds different to me from the '38 version anyways. Nevertheless, if Toscanini recorded this twice, both of these recordings are the best out there.

[gottagit]

@Kievest: your verbiage is a gift......

[ultrasions]

The whole war was FUBAR. Fuck charlie, fuck it all.

[feidtublec]

speechless...

[Sinfoniette]

@tienphuc69 Its stupid to think that America was a gunstrapped martyr who backed away. It was a highly calculated movement, as with so much political movements. Its also stupid to think that the communist dictatorship reins because Americans backed out. I don't want to judge you, if you were not part of the war, you shouldn't make comments like your first sentence, and if you did, I cannot believe that you would be able to regard the war completely disregarding the men who fought there.

[kamillianne]

I can barely listen ..without weeping. this piece touches my soul to the,,, painful...excuse me..I have to go lay down now.

[madcapfortunato]

If this piece was poison, I would drink it if it meant that I might better understand it. I would die content to know that it and I were, for a brief moment, one.

[SatchmoSings]

I would never have thought that Toscanini would even consider to play this let alone do it with his usual total mastery.

[epiksonik]

i think this is the first public introduction of this piece? to have listened it to it for the first time , wow.

[Bedrich94]

bellissima interpretazione di un bellissimo pezzo. Forse un po' troppo veloce, un adagio in senso metronomico. L'unica interpretazione migliore è quella di Bernstein

[brianwells456comcast]

This is a stunning performance.Toscanini plays the music as written, which was one of his greatest traits as a conductor.As one person has already correctly commented below,Toscanini`s tempo (of just over 7 minutes) is totally correct .To borrow and paraphrase a comment a critic made (regarding a certain sluggish performance of Mahler`s Symphony #1)"If Barber wanted his Adagio to be 10 minutes long he would have used more notes!"Ouch!

[Kievest]

Toscanini's gift was to hear the heartbeat of the composer and to make it audible

to the listener with truth, love and beauty. Barber's music is a haunting and terrible

sigh of empassioned nobility and universal melancholy. Often coupled with

shattering human tragedy and loss, the Adagio and Toscanini's conducting

offer comfort on the deepest levels born of the most touching expression of

profound emotional agony. As an American, I am shamed to my soul by your

video! I am not alone!

[epiksonik]

@Kievest

Wonderfully expressed opinion.

[AnryK2690]

He is incomparable.

[123abrant]

What happened to the good composers and musicians?Why do we get the Justin Bieber and other untalented musicians and not great composers anymore? Its an honest question. Did people lose taste for music?

[epiksonik]

@123abrant

No, people haven't lost the taste. Capitalism has expanded its into every extension of life in the most fragmented way possible. Probably for this reason alone I despise this system. It's relentlessness.

[SatchmoSings]

@123abrant When this was done (late 1930s) 30% of all recorded music sales were of classical music; it's now 2%. Bing Crosby sang as well as most operatic baritones and the accompanying orchestra played almost as well as the NBC Symphony.

Does any of this answer your question?

PS "Rap" now outsells Jazz and Classical music PUT TOGETHER!!!

[leslielandberg]

This is the only version I've found that plays the piece at the correct tempo. Music has really gone downhill...this is a seven minute composition, not a ten or eleven minute one. For shame, Boston Philharmonic, et al. You've ruined the melodic line, it's forward momentum, any passion that it may have, and are utterly unimaginative (not to mention lacking in any musical sophistication). I fight with professional musicians (esp. classical conductors) over tempi all the time.

[rwattonville]

This must be an old recording, but it holds up. At 7+ minutes, it is 3 minutes shorter than most recordings. Bittersweet music reflecting our living & being as no other piece of music I've ever heard. I never tire of hearing it.

[tranurse]

my uncle fought in viet nam. he said the hardest thing was the children. in an asian society, typically elders are considered more important, but in a western society it is the other way around(i'm generallizing), anyway, the children would be sent in wired to explode. they knew the gi's would want to play with the kids, give them candy etc. a bunch would go to a child, and they would be blown up.

[tranurse]

@tranurse cont. he told a story about seeing a kid right after he got there. he went to play with it, and the guy next to him shot the kid. he was mad at his buddy, till the guy explained to him about what was a kid doing in viet nam wearing a wool coat. the kid was wired to blow up.

[DeadSomething]

@tranurse a very sad and minddisturbing story.

[chanterelle11]

yes, great music, it seems me almost transcendental, and i think we aren't ready for it yet

[DeMoZ187]

wow ive been tryin to find out this song name for so long

[billyguns2]

I find this profoundly moving. Toscanini's orchestra always played with a correct and exciting tension in the singing musical line, forward motion, and nuance; all of these traits are so sadly missed in most of today's conductors and orchestras, alas!

[ugnedileo]

Diretto da Toscanini!

Davvero eccezionale!

[tiani22]

I hear this song in numerous war movies, but never knew that name. I found it as the number one search using classical music and war movies. Kinda sad.

[Madman2759]

If you like Toscanini, also check out his Missa Solemnis with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1939) and his Otello with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. And I agree, his Philadelphia Recordings are outstanding interpretations, as well.

[paulostroff99]

Beautiful to the max! Bravo!  TY.

[Janus1981BR]

Arturo Toscanini has shown many times throughout his career that he was an excellent interpreter of the composers' original intent. The Adagio by Barber seems to be no exception here. I am glad he showed his competence in interpreting 20th century music. To answer your question, saufunnom, I wish I had that recording, but I don't. If you like Toscanini, you've probably heard the NBC Symphony recordings of Beethoven's 9 Symphonies. I would recommend also the Verdi Requiem w/Toscanini.

[Sinfoniette]

Personally, I think a lot of his work with the Philadelphia (the one when T switched with Stokowski) shows his greatest. The Mendelssohn Midsummer, Schubert 9th and the Tchaikovsky 6th is supreme!

[Janus1981BR]

I haven't heard all of those. I'll have to check them out.

[2ndviolinist]

@Sinfoniette That's because Philly was a better orchestra with a much better conductor. The Philadelphia SO improved T and Stokowski improved NBC. I have to say T's Adagio of '38 is much better than Stoki's much later version with his symphony orchestra.

[SatchmoSings]

@2ndviolinist You really think Stokowski was better than Toscanini?

I certainly don't though of course Stokowski was great.

I'm aware they traded posts in late 1941 to early-mid 1942.

[2ndviolinist]

@SatchmoSings Unequivocally, especially with Philadelphia. Much more stye and imagination.

[SatchmoSings]

@2ndviolinist I used to have the complete Toscanini recordings with the Philadelphia; the only ones I can recall off-hand are Schubert's NInth (terrible) The Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream (excellent) and Tchaikovsky's Sixth whose impression I cannot recall. (The post WWII by T. and The NBC is rather mediocre.)

I've also never heard any recordings with S leading the NBC.

[saufunnom]

Anyone know where to find the 1938 radio premier Toscanini conducted?

[ironicbeing]

I don't think it's the actual premiere. Sounds more like the 1942 version, but I am merely guessing. ;)

[ironicbeing]

Have you ever noticed how all our modern war mongers are such cowards?

They talk about peace and freedom yet modern wars by definition have nothing to do with any of those two those attributes.

Modern wars are about, power, greed and the insanity of us mere mortals who allow it to happen.

[aewanko300]

Is this the world premiere recording?

[percphs]

With all of the horrible things in the world, we can at least say that we still have this... that we still have music. That is the only true good of the world, probably. I just got back from performing in an orchestral concert. And I feel great about being about of something beautiful with my life.

Samuel Barber... touched my life with this piece.

[Fantosonium]

Beautifully said

[PTR131]

@percphs DJ Tiesto is one horrible thing in this world.

[imusiciki]

This is really one of my favourite pieces....I can go on listening to this piece over and over again, rediscovering memories of the past, life and the emotional states I've been through whether it was saddnes and/or happiness. Thank you Sinfoniette for this emotional video and the excellent recording by Toscanini.

[mahlerite]

The string section and a slow tempo is often a potent combination in regards to very sad music such as this piece. Mahler was great at this, too, like the 4th movement of his 9th or his adagietto.

[mahlerite]

Heartwrenching that those children died without ANY good reason whatsoever. It also depresses me to think that politicians start wars over ideological differences, natural resources, imperialistic desires, etc., and then there's usually a significant sample of kids who die because of the fighting over issues like these, topics they are not even old enough to fully understand.