Song of the Day: Adagio for Strings, written by Samuel Barber, was arranged in 1936 from the second movement of his “String Quartet, Op. 11“. Its World Premiere Performance was given on November 5, 1938 by the NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the legendary Arturo Toscanini. An equally impressive performance was conducted by the great Leonard Bernstein at four consecutive memorial performances of the New York Philharmonic, after Barber’s death in 1981. On this date in 1910, the composer, conductor, music educator, and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Samuel Barber was born. Listen to both the Toscanini and Bernstein-conducted renditions [YouTube links].
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