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 in 1976 but afterward gaining in frequency of performances, is interpreted with sensitivity, expansiveness, and features the strong solo work of oboist
Celia Nicklin. Creston's A Rumour is not nearly as famous a work as the others, but as a propulsive and clever American orchestral miniature, it fits with the rest of the program. In terms of American orchestral literature, Barber: Adagio for Strings is about the best album Decca has ever made, and it remains a top-flight choice for any of these works, save the
Ives.