Various - ADAGIO CHILLOUT

Adagio ChilloutAdagio (Italian: at ease; at a leisurely pace). Anindication of tempo, sometimes used to describe a slow movement.Take off your shoes, sit back in your favourite chair andimmerse yourself in some of the most tranquil music of the past 300 years.Music has been used for centuries to relax and soothe the mind and body, andthis collection brings together works from all over the world - some familiar,some not so well-known - to ease away the stresses of the day. Track 1Samuel Barber (1910-1981)Adagio for StringsFew twentieth century pieces have caught the publicimagination quite like Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings. Originally conceivedas the central movement of his String Quartet in B minor, it was laterorchestrated by the composer at a request from the conductor Arturo Toscaninifor a piece for his first season with the newly-formed NBC Symphony Orchestra.The piece gained international repute after it was performed at the funerals ofsuch luminaries as President Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Albert Einstein,and has since been used in films such as Platoon, Lorenzo's Oil and TheElephant Man. It is an extraordinarily expressive piece of music, unfolding ina series of dynamic terraces with the intensity increasing as the rapt mood iseffortlessly sustained throughout. It culminates in an impassioned climaxfollowed by a heartfelt pause, and the melody resumes its elegiac course,resolving as if with a benediction.             Ifyou enjoyed the Adagio for Strings, why not try:            8.559088       Barber:Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 (includes Adagio for Strings and Cello Concerto)                          WendyWarner (cello)            8.559044       Barber:Orchestral Works, Vol. 3 (includes Violin Concerto)                        JamesBuswell (violin)                        RoyalScottish National Orchestra, Marin AlsopTrack 2Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)Piano Concerto No. 21 in D major, K467 'Elvira Madigan':Andante Mozart wrote an astonishing number of works in his shortlifetime. Among these are 27 concertos \for keyboard: the piano as we know ittoday was not fully developed until the very end of the eighteenth century, soMozart's concertos were probably intended for performance on the fortepiano(the modern piano's immediate predecessor). They are generally referred tothese days as piano concertos as they are mostly performed on modern pianos.Mozart's Piano Concert