ALBINONI - ADAGIO FOR SOLO TROMBONE AND STRINGS

The "Adagio in G minor" for Trombone and String Quartet is a wonderful arrangement of the work attributed to Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751). The piece is about seven minutes in length for advanced performers.

Below is a short article about the Adagio by the arranger, Sean F. Biehn. There is much controversy as to who wrote the Adagio for Strings in G minor and whether it was a stolen idea, or embellished from a piece of a manuscript. The piece is considered to be a fragment of Tomaso Albinoni's (1671-1751) original manuscript with a few measures of the melodic material and basso continuo.

During World War II, the Saxon State Library was destroyed during the bombings of Dresdon. Remo Giazotto, (1910-1998) a musicologist, and an Albinoni biographer evacuated most of the Sate Library documents. Giazotto took the fragment of manuscript and completed an original composition. In 1958, Giazotto finalized the piece under the title of "Adagio in G minor for Strings and Organ, on Two Thematic Ideas and on a Figured Bass by Tomaso Albinoni." Remo Giazotto never shared the manuscript and there has never been a record of the missing manuscript fragment.

This particular version of Adagio for Strings contains a string quartet accompanying a trombone soloist.