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Monday, October 19, 2020

Vienna Philharmonic
Barber: Adagio For Strings

1 comment:

  1. Outstanding classical concert venue! This event would be an entry on my bucket list.

    ===>From the video description:
    The Summer Night Concert was performed on June 20th, 2019. It is an annual open-air event, which has been held since 2008. The park of Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna/Austria is the magical setting for the concert, which is free of charge for all residents and visitors of the city. Central to the programme of the Vienna Philharmonic’s 2019 Summer Night Concert was a musical history of the United States of America: the works that were heard in the 2019 set are composed in or for the USA, while also constituting links with the Viennese musical tradition.
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    I became familiar with this adagio as typically played when memorializing 9/11....interesting choice to associate with USA history. However, after looking up the history of this piece I learned it was first played in 1938 and has been tied to mourning of several historic moments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adagio_for_Strings:
    he Adagio for Strings has been performed on many public occasions, especially during times of mourning. It was:

    Broadcast over radio at the announcement of Franklin D. Roosevelt's death;[17]
    Broadcast on television at the announcement of John F. Kennedy's death[18]
    Played at the funeral of Albert Einstein[18]
    Played at the funeral of Princess Grace of Monaco[17]
    Played at the state funeral of Canadian Jack Layton, the New Democratic Party Leader[21]
    Played in Trafalgar Square, on January 9, 2015, by an ensemble of 150 string players led by Thomas Gould of the Aurora Orchestra following the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo.[22]
    Played by the Brussels Philharmonic on March 25, 2016 in front of the Brussels Stock Exchange following the 2016 Brussels bombings earlier that week.[23]
    Played in Central Park in New York City on June 15, 2016, for the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting.[24]
    Played at the televised memorial in Manchester, England on May 23, 2017, for the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing.[25]
    Played at the digital European Concert in the Berliner Philharmonie by the Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko on May 1, 2020, for Coronavirus victims.[26]

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