Winner of the Grammy Award 2018 (Best Engineered Album)
Featuring
Manfred Honeck
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Dmitri Shostakovich
Samuel Barber
Did you know?
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Composer's Artistic Vision
Shostakovich had a tremendous affinity for Gustav Mahler, stating that studying Mahler's pieces changed his compositional taste.
Composer Biography
Dmitri Shostakovich's grandfather, a Roman Catholic revolutionary from Poland, was banned to Siberia before moving to St. Petersburg.
Composition History
Shostakovich's opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, was cancelled after Stalin attended a performance and a critical article titled 'Chaos instead of Music' appeared in Pravda.
Notable Performances
Arturo Toscanini, after hearing Barber's String Quartet, asked Barber to arrange the Adagio movement for full string orchestra, which he premiered in 1938 with the NBC Orchestra.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Shostakovich stated that the theme of his Fifth Symphony was 'the development of my personality' and centered on 'the human with all his life conditions.'
Composition History
Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings originated as the second movement of his String Quartet No. 1, composed in 1936.
Cultural Impact
Barber's Adagio for Strings has been widely used for significant public mourning occasions, including the funeral services of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, and the September 11th Memorial.
