Editing Adagio for Strings (section)

== History ==
Barber's ''Adagio for Strings'' was originally the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11, composed in 1936 while he was spending a summer in Europe with [[Gian Carlo Menotti]], an Italian composer and Barber's partner since their student years at the [[Curtis Institute of Music]].<ref name=nytimes>{{cite news
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/arts/music/07barber.html
|title=An Adagio for Strings, and for the Ages
|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|access-date=March 7, 2010
|first=Johanna
|last=Keller
|date=March 7, 2010
}}</ref> Barber was inspired by Virgil's didactic poem ''[[Georgics]]''. In the quartet, the ''Adagio'' follows a violently contrasting first movement (''Molto allegro e appassionato'') and is succeeded by a third movement that opens with a brief reprise of the music from the first movement (marked ''Molto allegro (come prima) – Presto'').<ref>
{{cite book
|last1= Woodstra
|first1=Chris
|last2=Brennan
|first2=Gerald
|last3=Schrott
|first3= Allen
|title=All Music Guide to Classical Music: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music
|publisher=[[Hal Leonard Corporation|Backbeat Books]]
|year=2005
|isbn=0-87930-865-6
|page=81
}}</ref>

In January 1938, Barber sent an orchestrated version of the ''Adagio for Strings'' to [[Arturo Toscanini]]. The conductor returned the score without comment, which annoyed Barber. Toscanini sent word through Menotti that he was planning to perform the piece and had returned it simply because he had already memorized it.<ref name=ATC>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6427815|title=The Impact of Barber's ''Adagio for Strings''|work=[[All Things Considered]]|publisher=[[NPR]]|date=November 4, 2006|access-date=November 13, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101023030949/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6427815|archive-date= October 23, 2010|url-status=live}} {{link note|note=Audio clip}}</ref> It was reported that Toscanini did not look at the music again until the day before the premiere.<ref name=Heyman167>{{harvnb|Heyman|1992|pp=[https://archive.org/details/samuelbarbercomp0000heym/page/167 167–180]}}</ref> On November 5, 1938, a selected audience was invited to [[Studio 8H]] in [[Rockefeller Center]] to watch Toscanini conduct the first performance; it was broadcast on radio and also recorded. Initially, the critical reception was mixed. ''[[The New York Times]]''{{'}} [[Olin Downes]] praised the piece, but he was reproached by other critics who claimed that he overrated it.<ref name="book1">
{{cite book
|editor-last=Tick
|editor-first=Judith
|editor2-last=Beaudoin
|editor2-first=Paul
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GzGQSt2L_osC&q=adagio+for+strings&pg=PA470
|title=Music in the USA: a documentary companion
|isbn=978-0-19-513987-7
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|year=2008
|pages=470–474
}}</ref>

Toscanini conducted ''Adagio for Strings'' in South America and Europe, the first performances of the work on both continents. Over April 16–19, 1942, the piece had public performances by the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]] conducted by [[Eugene Ormandy]] at [[Carnegie Hall]]. Like the original 1938 performance, these were broadcast on radio and recorded.