The "Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis" is a one-movement work for string orchestra by Ralph Vaughan Williams on a theme by the 16th century English composer Thomas Tallis, first performed in Gloucester Cathedral in 1910.
Barber composed the "Adagio for Strings" in 1936 during a study visit to Wolfgangsee near Salzburg. The premiere took place on November 5, 1938 under Arturo Toscanini with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in New York. The work is considered Samuel Barber's most popular composition, although he himself did not enjoy it because he feared that its popularity would overshadow his other compositional work.
Haydn's 60th Symphony was originally composed as incidental music for a comedy in five acts about the "absent-minded" Léandre mentioned in the title. The work was originally composed for the stage: The first movement served as an overture, movements two to five as inter-act music, and the last as a kind of "finale" after the end of the play.
May 14, 2024
