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Donald Macleod explores Barber’s final years when he was suffering from alcoholism, depression and cancer.

Composer of the Week explores the life and music of Samuel Barber, who is only considered one of the most expressive representatives of the Romantic trend in 20th-century classical music, as well as one of the most frequently performed American composers. His most famous score is his early Adagio for Strings; some of his other breakthrough include his Piano Sonata, and the opera Vanessa.

Barber began studying piano from the age of six and started to compose from the age of seven. He went on to take composition lessons with Rosario Scalero at the Curtis Institute of Music and, from this point, he never looked back, quickly becoming one of America’s most famous composers. He wrote in many different genres, including chamber, vocal, orchestral and works for the stage, and often composed in response to significant and highly desirable commissions. He enjoyed close collaboration with the performers he wrote for, shaping his music to their individual styles and capabilities. Only towards the end of his life, when he was struggling with depression, alcoholism and also cancer, did his creative output slow.

In Samuel Barber’s final decade, his relationship with his former partner, Gian Carlo Menotti, was under strain. Barber sold the house where he and Menotti had lived for nearly three decades and moved into an apartment in New York. He found a new companion during his final years. Valentin Herranz was Spanish and he became Barber’s cook and housekeeper, and from there things developed. Barber was now taking on fewer commissions and his output gradually slowed. He did accept a request to write for a piano competition, for which he composed his highly popular Ballade. He also agreed to compose an oboe concerto for an old friend of his from his college days, Harold Gomberg. Barber only completed one movement and renamed the work to Canzonetta for Oboe and String Orchestra. In 1978 he was diagnosed with cancer of the lymphatic system. He died in 1981 with Menotti at his bedside.

Third Essay, Op 47
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi, conductor

A Green Lowland of Pianos, Op 45 No 2
Thomas Allen, bass-baritone
Roger Vignoles, piano

Toccata festiva, Op 36
Olivier Latry, organ
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor

The Lovers, Op 43 (excerpt)
David Farwig, baritone
Conspirare: A Company of Voices
Chamber Orchestra
Craig Hella Johnson, director

Ballade, Op 46
Eric Parkin, piano

Canzonetta, Op 48
Stéphane Rancourt, oboe
Royal Scottish National Orchestra,
Marin Alsop, conductor

Produced by Luke Whitlock