Thursday, March 4th, 2010 | by Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Samuel Barber
B. Mar. 9, 1910 in West Chester, Pennsylvania
D. Jan. 23, 1981 in New York, New York

When he wrote his First Symphony, Samuel Barber was no longer a student but not quite yet an established composer.  Having been once turned down for the Prix de Rome, Barber in 1935 resubmitted the same works he had offered the first time and was accepted.  The prize consisted of $2,500 and free living quarters at the American Academy in Rome.  Having begun work on his First Symphony while waiting to hear the results of his second try for the Rome prize, he took the piece along with him, finishing it in 1936. READ MORE

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Thursday, February 11th, 2010 | by Florida Tour, 2010

http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com

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Thursday, February 11th, 2010 | by Florida Tour, 2010

South Florida Classical Review

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Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 | by Florida Tour, 2010

Interview with Leonard Slatkin on WKCP 89.7 FM, Classical South Florida.

Slatkin Interview.mp3

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Monday, February 1st, 2010 | by Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Samuel Barber
B. March 9, 1910 in West Chester, Pennsylvania
D. Jan., 23, 1981 in New York City
 
Samuel Barber became one of the most consistently admired and frequently performed American composers of the 20th century.  He developed a strongly individual musical language rooted in the lyrical and dramatic traditions of Romanticism and he composed in standard musical forms inherited from the 18th and 19th centuries.  He was the nephew of American operatic contralto Louise Homer and his career was strongly encouraged by her and her husband, song composer Sidney Homer.  Barber’s masterpieces include the opera Vanessa, the reflective song cycle, Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and the celebrated Adagio for Strings.
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Friday, October 2nd, 2009 | by Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Samuel Barber
B. March 9, 1910 in West Chester, Pennsylvania
D. Jan. 23, 1981 in New York, New York

The concerto is written in the best traditions Barber championed. It is lyrical, conservative in style and fastidiously orchestrated. The first movement is in a standard sonata form, opening with a transparent, long-spun solo violin theme that various commentators have likened (perhaps inappropriately) to a theme by Mozart. When this has run its course, the clarinet takes up a puckish second theme, then the violin returns with a rhythmically active theme, marked by numerous bounding-bow passages. The first two themes are rigorously developed before the first theme returns in a major orchestral climax, signaling the recapitulation. READ MORE

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Friday, October 2nd, 2009 | by Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Samuel Barber
B. March 9, 1910 in West Chester, Pennsylvania
D. Jan. 23, 1981 in New York, New York

There is a longstanding prejudice to the effect that a composer of songs is by nature one who snatches melodies from the air and who cannot be expected to tackle so demanding a task as composing instrumental music. Schubert’s symphonies and sonatas have been undervalued on this premise, as have the instrumental works of Samuel Barber. Scholars are now hard at work explaining that Schubert was more than the jolly tunesmith of popular misconception, and it is time that someone did the same for Samuel Barber. To be sure, his instrumental works are few in number, but they are lovingly and ingeniously crafted. READ MORE

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Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 | by Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Samuel Barber
B. March 9, 1910, West Chester, Pennsylvania
D. Jan. 23, 1981, New York City, New York

“There was no one else, he was our most popular composer — our best,” said Hans Heinsheimer, an executive with the music publishing firm of G. Schirmer. “He” was Samuel Barber, and the occasion of which Heinsheimer was speaking was the commission his company offered Barber to write a new work celebrating the publishing house’s 100th anniversary. The piece was Barber’s Piano Concerto, and it would receive its premiere during the festivities for the opening of Lincoln Center, which coincided with Schirmer’s centenary. READ MORE

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Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 | by Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Samuel Barber
B. March 9, 1910, West Chester, Pennsylvania
D. Jan. 23, 1981, New York City, New York

While other composers of his generation largely turned away from the 19th-century romanticism that had supposedly led to the horrors of two world wars, Samuel Barber held firm to tradition. Even as Schoenberg and Stravinsky and American contemporaries such as Milton Babbitt intellectualized music into rational patterns in order to escape the excess of the past, Barber continued to trust his “inner voice,” a dialect that spoke of a deep connection to common practice harmony and vocal lyricism. Although Barber increasingly experimented with dissonance, chromaticism, and even 12-tone rows, he never did so in a way that compromised tonality or lyricism, with the result that his newest compositions quickly became popular and enjoyed frequent performances. READ MORE

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Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 | by Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Samuel Barber
B. March 9, 1910, West Chester, Pennsylvania
D. Jan. 23, 1981, New York City, New York

Composed by a 21-year-old Samuel Barber as a graduation thesis from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Overture to The School for Scandal was the young composer’s first major public work. READ MORE

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