Barber: Adagio for Strings; Ives; Symphony No. 3; Copland: Quiet City (1987)

performed by Celia Nicklin (cor anglais), Celia Nicklin (oboe), Michael Laird (cornet), Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Neville Marriner (conductor)
composed by Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, Henry Cowell, Paul Creston, Samuel Barber

Barber: Adagio for Strings by Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields is an Argo CD that is a long-standing favorite from the LP catalog. Recorded in 1976, in its LP incarnation this issue went a long way toward dispelling the notion that English orchestras were too heavy in body and provincial in tone to interpret American orchestral music in an effective way. Marriner's reading of the title work is the very model of restraint, and he employs a careful building up of mood in Barber's somber masterwork ... Read More

Barber: Adagio for Strings by Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields is an Argo CD that is a long-standing favorite from the LP catalog. Recorded in 1976, in its LP incarnation this issue went a long way toward dispelling the notion that English orchestras were too heavy in body and provincial in tone to interpret American orchestral music in an effective way. Marriner's reading of the title work is the very model of restraint, and he employs a careful building up of mood in Barber's somber masterwork that suits it to a "T." Ives' Symphony No. 3 is likewise well served, if delivered at a tempo that seems a shade quick, particularly in the last movement, "Communion." Copland's Quiet City, however, is just about perfect, featuring fine trumpet playing by Michael Laird and the generous reverberation that characterized St. John's in Smith Square, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields' longtime recording "home." Cowell's Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 10, still a relatively obscure work... Read Less