Customer Rating: 
Summary: Superb
Comment: Bernstein's usual wonderful interpretations of 5 pieces.
This is probably the best performance of Barber's Adagio you can find and I have heard them all. One other note is Williams' Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis... it is spellbinding. This cd is definately worth the price if you are into slower strings.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Powerful and Moving
Comment: Barber's Adagio for Strings has become my favorite piece of music ever since hearing this recording several years ago. I definitely recommend this for anyone who likes violin music.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Barber's adagio
Comment: This sounds like a great recording of the Adagio adopted for orchestra.
I personally discovered another cd called Cathedral Classics recorded by Dale Warland Singers which gives a superior recording of the same music.
Dale Warland gives an unmatched quality that is available on the Internet.
Customer Rating:
Summary: My inner beauty
Comment: This music brings thoughts to my mind. I relax and think about good memories. But something in the music makes me sad sometimes and I can't stop listening to it because it is so beautiful. I want this CD to be played at my funeral. Only because it would bring good thoughts to people who know me now, but also just because it is so serene.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Oscar Wilde plays Barber?
Comment: Apparently, Thomas R. Brown is the only reviewer who has actually listened to this disc.
The performance of the Barber is not only the worst performance of the Adagio that I've ever heard; it's probably the worst performance of any piece by a major orchestra that I've ever heard, live or recorded. The complete lack of synchronization between the various string sections is embarrassing; the sloppy entrances are distracting and graceless. The orchestra sloshes from phrase to phrase like water in a bucket being carried over rough terrain. One wonders whether Bernstein was bothering to conduct at all, or was making everyone guess. This performance would have been unacceptable from my Youth Orchestra 25 years ago.
The other tracks are considerably better, but it's hard to make up for such a pathetic effort on the lead track.
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