Adagio for Strings Adagio for Strings Adagio for Strings is a work by Samuel Barber, arguably his best known, arranged for string orchestra from the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11. Barber finished the arrangement in 1936, the same year that he wrote the quartet. It was performed for the first time on November 5, 1938, by Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in a radio broadcast from NBC Studio 8H. Toscanini also played the piece on his South American tour with the NBC Symphony in 1940. Its reception was generally positive, with Alexander J. Morin writing that "Adagio for
Adagio and Rondo Concertante Adagio and Rondo Concertante The Adagio and Rondo Concertante ("Adagio e Rondo concertante") in F major for piano quartet, 487, was composed by Franz Schubert in 1816. A "brilliant" work designed as a display piece for the piano soloist, it is not only one of the few works the composer wrote in this style, but it is his first composition for piano and string ensemble, preceding the "Trout" Quintet" by three years. Schubert apparently composed the quartet at the request of Heinrich Grob, the brother of Therese Grob, who at the time Schubert hoped to marry. Offered to Diabelli after