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Adagio in G minor for Strings and Organ (Albinoni)

(Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni/Remo Giazotto)

This well known piece of music written for and organ and string ensemble was originally part of a sonata or cantata composed in the Baroque period.  It was unknown until after WWII when just a fragment of the bass part of the manuscript was discovered in the ruins of the Dresden State Library, which had been bombed.  This was passed to the Italian musicologist, Remo Giazotto, who arranged/composed it into the popular piece we now know.Remo,Gia

It has been used extensively in television shows including Space 1999 and Butterflies, and film scores such as Kafka’s The Trial, Rollerball, Flashdance and Gallipoli.  In popular music it has been used by Yngwie Malmsteen in “Icarus Dream Suite”, the Doors used it for the album An American Prayer, Muse use it as introduction for their song “Time is Running Out”, guitarist Dominic Miller has transcribed and recorded it, and it was used in the rock/opera Midnight Blue as a theme for the song “Midnight Blue”.   It is also a featured song on the 1994 computer game Rise of the Triad.

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (ASMF) recordings
EMI Classics 5 66400 (CD: Baroque for Dummies) 
Conductor – Neville Marriner
Violin – Iona Brown

Seraphim 5 73289 2 (CD: Classical Favorites)
Conductor – Neville Marriner
Violin – Iona Brown

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra recordings
Deutsche Grammophon DG 419 046-2 (CD: Albinoni/Pachelbel/Corelli & Manfredini/Vivaldi)
Conductor – Herbert Von Karajan
Organ – Wolfgang Meyer

Deutsche Grammophon DG. 445 282-2 (CD: Adagio – Karajan)
Conductor – Herbert von Karajan
Organ – David Bell
Violin – Leon Spierer

Deutsche Grammophon DG. 449 724-2 (CD: Respighi: Fontane Di Roma. Pina Di Roma etc.)
Conductor – Herbert von Karajan
Organ – Wolfgang Meyer

Cologne Chamber Orchestra recordings
Naxos 8.557124 (CD: Best of Baroque Music)
Conductor –  Helmut Muller-Bruhl
Harpsichord – Harald Hoeren
Violin – Lisa Stewart
Violin – Christine Pichlmeir

Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra
Laserlight 15 688 (CD: Meditation – Classical Relaxation, Vol. 3)
Conductor – Herbert Kegel 

English Chamber Orchestra recordings
London 425 201 (CD: Joy: Timeless Classics from the Guitar of Michael Conn)
Conductor – Leslie Williams
Guitar – Michael Conn

English String Orchestra recordings
Nimbus NI 7019 (CD: Orchestral Favourites Vol. 1: Pachelbel’s Canon)
Conductor – William Boughton

The Eroica Trio recordings
EMI 57906 (CD: The Best of the Eroica Trio)

Hokan Hardenberger and Simon Preston recordings
Philips 434 074-2 (CD: Trumpet and Organ Spectacular)
Trumpet – Hokan Hardenberger
Organ – Simon Preston

I Solisti Veneti recordings
Erato ECD 15681 (CD: Albinoni’s Adagios)
Conductor – Claudio Scimone

Lucerne Festival Strings recordings
Deutsche Grammophon DG 413 248 2 (CD: Adagio)
Conductor – Rudolf Baumgartner
Violin – Zino Francescatti
Violin – Regis Pasquier
Violin – Walter Prystawksi
Organ – Eduard Kaufman

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra recordings
Deutsche Grammophon  429 390-2 GH (CD: Albinoni: Adagio, Pachelbel: Canon)

Jean-Francois Paillard Chamber Orchestra recordings
Erato 2292 45200 2 (CD: Pachelbel Canon; Albinoni: Adagio)

Sara Sant’Ambrogio recordings
Sebastian Records 8 24611 02002 (CD: Dreaming)
Cello – Sara Sant’Ambrogio
Piano – Anyssa Neuman

Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra recordings
Decca 475 8073 (CD: Ultimate Baroque)
ConductorKarl Munchinger

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adagio_in_G_minor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remo_Giazotto