Kirill Petrenko conducts Barber’s Adagio for Strings

Originally composed in 1936 as the second movement of a string quartet, Samuel Barber’s Adagio has since taken on a life of its own in the composer’s own arrangement for string orchestra. With its solemn, melancholically ascending theme, which becomes increasingly harmonically complex, its effect is as immediate as it is moving: In 2004, BBC listeners voted Barber’s Adagio for Strings the “saddest work in classical music”. With the Berliner Philharmoniker, chief conductor Kirill Petrenko brings out the lines of the composition with clarity, offering a profound insight into Barber’s masterful compositional artistry.