Adagio for Strings

Samuel Barber wrote his String Quartet in 1936, and the slow movement he later arranged for string orchestra became the Adagio that Toscanini introduced on radio in 1938. Here it returns to its original home as the second movement of the complete quartet. Adagio for Strings pairs it with Frank Bridge's Phantasy Piano Quartet, Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin, whose movements honor friends who died in the First World War, and Bernstein's Dance Suite for brass quintet, his last completed work, whose five movements are each dedicated to a choreographer friend. It is the second of the Sarasota Orchestra's six Chamber Soirées, held in Holley Hall and running an hour without intermission.