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Samuel Barber: Agnus Dei (Adagio for strings) beautiful
The 1938 world broadcast debut, with Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Orchestra, was selected in 2005 for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the United States Library of Congress.[2]
In 2004, Barber's masterpiece was voted the "saddest classical" work ever by listeners of the BBC's Today programme, ahead of "Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell, and the "Adagietto" from Gustav Mahler's 5th symphony.[3] The version of the piece performed by London Symphony Orchestra was, for a time, the highest selling classical piece on iTunes.[4]
The piece can be heard in films such as Platoon, The Elephant Man, El Norte, Amélie, Lorenzo's Oil, S1m0ne and Reconstruction, and in videogame Homeworld. It is also used in several episodes of The Simpsons in scenes lampooning sadness and destruction ("Strong Arms of the Ma", "Marge Gamer", and "Little Orphan Millie"). "Adagio for Strings" is also used in the beginning of the song "I'll Be Missing You" by Puff Daddy & The Family (from CD: No Way Out.)
An electronic version was made by William Orbit in 1999,[5] and a trance remix of this was made by world renowned Dutch DJs Ferry Corsten and Tiësto. Tiësto's hard trance remix of the arrangement, which he made in 2005,[6] gained prominence in the club scene throughout Europe and the world, charting at #37 in the UK and #20 in Ireland.[citation needed] It also featured in Tiësto's set at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, which was televised to 4 billion people globally.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adagio_for_Strings