Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" is considered one of the most popular of all 20th-century classical works. Its 1938 premiere by the NBC Orchestra with conductor Arturo Toscanini is a recent ...

" The Adagio for Strings arrived at the right moment, when America was still hurting from the Great Depression and Europe was sliding into war.

Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" is considered one of the most popular of all 20th-century classical works. Its 1938 premiere by the NBC Orchestra with conductor Arturo Toscanini is a recent ...

By the time he was in his mid-20s, Barber was famous, after Arturo Toscanini led the premiere of the “Adagio for Strings” with the NBC Symphony Orchestra before a gigantic radio audience in 1938.

Heard in movies from "Platoon" to "Amélie," chosen to commemorate historic figures, and even sampled by P. Diddy and Muse, Samuel Barber's " Adagio for Strings " has little need for advocacy.