"Was dem Herzen entsprungen, soll auch das Herz durchdringen." (Beethoven). In seiner ruhigen, fließenden Bewegung wurde das Adagio, der langsame Satz, meist als Besinnungspause zwischen die schnelleren Sätze gesetzt. Neuere medizinisch-neurologische Forschung (Literatur: Tomatis, Campbell u.a.) konnte nachweisen, dass die „kontemplativen Klassiker“ Stress abbauen, Schmerz lindern, das Immunsystem stärken, Konzentration und Leistungskraft steigern und kreativ inspirieren. Die einfache Formel: Liebe heilt. Hier in Form von klassischer Musik für Orchester, Piano, Gesang.

the project

As modern life has become increasingly complex and stressful, listeners have turned to music as a source of relief—especially the timeless, comtemplative sounds of classical music. It seems that as the pace of our lives gets progressively faster, the music that many listeners are seeking is increasingly slow. Adagio (Complete Edition) presents over 18–hours of the world's finest slow music, in seven double–CDs—making it the largest such collection anywhere.

Over 500 years of the greatest classical composers are represented in this series; some of their finest, most ethereal, pastoral, or nocturnal works have been carefully selected and sequenced on these recordings, each of which sustains a comtemplative, distinctive mood. That mood may pleasantly surprise listeners who have been put off by classical music's reputation for complexity and bombast. Whether it is a vivid musical depiction of moonlight on a lake at night by Debussy, or one of Messiaen's piano musings that seem to break free of this earth altogether, the works compiled here are finely wrought musical impressions, suggestions, and meditations.

Adagio I and Adagio II are devoted to slow orchestral music, Andante presents chamber music classics, Largo I and Largo II together contain some of the greatest piano music ever written and Magnum Mysterium I focuses on the sacred choral music of the 15th to 17th centuries. Magnum Mysterium II, also drawing on the rich liturgical music heritage of Catholic and Protestant rites, represents 400 years of sacred contemplative music.

Using the duobox case pioneered by Celestial Harmonies, each double–CD in this series features beautiful cover art with paintings by such masters as John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough, Caspar David Friedrich and Albrecht Altdorfer, reflecting the classical/romantic style, the slower pace, and the serene mood of the music within.

the composers

This edition, presented for the first time in a boxed set, draws upon a vast repertoire of classical and sacred music recordings, from some of the most talented orchestras, chamber ensembles, and soloists in Europe.

For those who are impressed by names, all the great composers of Western music are represented: Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, William Byrd, Frederic Chopin, Claude Debussy, Antonín Dvorak, Gabriel Fauré, Georg Friedrich Händel, Franz Joseph Haydn, Leoš Janáèek, Franz Liszt, Giuseppe Martucci, Jules Massenet, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina, Sergey Rakhmaninov, Maurice Ravel, Gioacchino Rossini, Erik Satie, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Heinrich Schütz, Dmitri Shostakovich, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Vivaldi, Richard Wagner, Ralph Vaughan Williams and many more.

But listeners will hear, perhaps for the first time, equally beautiful music by Duarte Lobo, Federico Mompou and the modern mystic Olivier Messiaen.

the series