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Adagietto from Symphony No. 1
for string orchestra (1990)
Premiere
2 April 1990
The Calvin Simmons Theater, Oakland, California
The Oakland East Bay Orchestra / Michael Morgan
Instrumentation
string orchestra
Duration
6'

Program Note
The Adagietto, is a loving, soulful essay celebrating the strings of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The ideas in this movement, which was completed on 1 February 1988, may be traced backwards to a movement in Hagen's quintet for flute and strings entitled The Presence Absence Makes, composed simultaneously. The work was premiered on 3 April 1990 by the Oakland East Bay Orchestra under the direction of Michael Morgan before being folded into the full Symphony, which was premiered 19 April 1991 by the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by William Smith.
--- William Rhoads, 2003
Reviews
...a soaring string work, mainly for violins and violas....
--- Daniel Webster, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/20/91

The adagietto from Hagen's Symphony No. 1 [played by the Oakland Symphony conducted by Michael Morgan] was a broad-lined piece for strings that was altogether lyrical. He kept one long unison melody for the violins going along viably for what seemed a couple of minutes, gradually matching other lines to it, all in the middle high string range."

--- Robert Commanday, The San Francisco Chronicle, 3/3/90

The adagietto is a spare, unmannered, elegiac essay for strings, tinged with the atmosphere of faraway hills and cloud-streaked skies."

--- David Gere, The Oakland Tribune, 3/3/90