Philharmonic Orchestra on Tour

Adagio for Strings is a work by Samuel Barber, arranged for string orchestra from the second movement of his String Quartet. Its reception was generally positive, with Alexander J. Morin writing that Adagio for Strings is "full of pathos and cathartic passion" and that it "rarely leaves a dry eye." Gilead Mishorys Di vayte haymat mayne is shaped by great compositional and emotional expression. Marc Chagall´s paintings and his visual language are an established part of our cultural vocabulary. Only a few people are aware, however, that the world-renowned Jewish artist also wrote poems, all of them in Yiddish, his native tongue. The music undergoes eruptive abrupt changes in timbre, sounding at times like a sinister nightmare figure wanly grumbling or at times in biting dissonance. Even while playing forte, there appears to be a state of fearful silence, which yet gives room more and more to an increasingly manic, percussive moment. Souvenir de Florence is a string sextet scored for 2 violins, 2 violas, and 2 cellos composed by Tchaikovsky. The work has also been arranged for string orchestra. Tchaikovsky dedicated the work to the St. Petersburg Chamber Music Society in response to his becoming an Honorary Member. The work, in the traditional four-movement form, was titled Souvenir de Florence because the composer sketched one of the work's principal themes while visiting Florence, Italy.