Adagio Greatest Hits

Adagio (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Adagio
• Audio CD (July 15, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000003GA3
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #391,965 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adagio - Greatest Hits, May 29, 2000

By 

Brad Broseker (Gaithersburg, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adagio Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

This is a masterful compilation of some the most hauntingly beautiful music put to CD. Bravo!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars interesting collection, good price, but definitely not the greatest, February 17, 2006

By 

ronaldbrian (Quezon City, Philippines) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adagio Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

In Iris Murdoch's The Nice and the Good, one of the characters "was always playing slow movements" on his gramophone. Murdoch gave him the most memorable line from the novel: "Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self. To be damned is for one's ordinary everyday mode of consciousness to be unremitting agonizing preoccupation with self." (Willy Kost, ch. 22). It's impossible he said this with heavy metal music on the background. Was the thoughtful intermezzo from the Cavalleria Rusticana perhaps playing when he said this?

The slow movements in this compilation are interesting, but I wouldn't call them the greatest of adagios. Offhand, "the greatest" should include the adagio from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, the adagio sostenuto from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, the andante from Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F, the romance from Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, or even the largo from Bach's Double Violin Concerto in D minor. These compositions are far grander than the clichéd Albinoni's Adagio included in this album (as in every other classical "greats" album). But that's just me.

The strengths of this cd are the beautifully performed intermezzo from Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, Elgar's Nimrod variations, and Brahm's Adagio from Violin Concerto in D. The Cavalleria Rusticana, in particular, is elegantly performed, in contrast to the melodrama and haphazard sentimentality which seems to be the tendency among a lot of conductors with this piece.

5.0 out of 5 stars Adagio Greatest Hits, September 19, 2011

By 

S. Hood "Hood's Dollhouses" (Alto, NM) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Adagio Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

Adagio Greatest Hits. My wife heard the piece of music on the classical station on which we listen. She tried and tried to find it. Finally we came to Amazon and listened to the preview songs on several albums and Ah Ha there it was. We bought the album and it is just what we wanted. Thanks Amazon.