18 Feb 2022

ALBINONI/Remo GIAZOTTO: Adagio in G minor

From Music Alive, 8:06 pm on 18 February 2022

This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions.

Performed by Indra Hughes on the Auckland Town Hall Organ, 13 August 2021.

Indra Hughes

Indra Hughes at Huia Photo: Indra Hughes

The famous Albinoni Adagio ... only it's probably not by Albinoni at all.

Remo Giazotto published the work in 1958, basing it "on two thematic ideas and on a figured bass by Tomaso Albinoni" that he claimed he'd found in a manuscript fragment from the Saxon State Library in Dresden.

However Giazotto never produced the manuscript and there is continuing debate on whether the story of its discovery was a hoax.

As Indra Hughes says in his programme note, "Does it matter?" No one can deny that it's a beautiful piece of music.

Recorded by RNZ Concert, Auckland Town Hall, 13 August 2021
Producer: Tim Dodd; Engineer: Adrian Hollay

Get the RNZ app

for easy access to all your favourite programmes