As human beings, we are always creating. We make mirror images surrounding our moods when we produce art, write a story, or even talk on the phone. On this edition of All Ears, we explore the many avenues of listening to ourselves and allowing others to look in.

We begin the program with music that started as a string quartet. Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings is a piece that has been featured by many different composers and rearranged in different lights, in different reflections. We hear the Robert Shaw Festival Singers performing a vocal arrangement of the piece made by Barber himself in 1967. It came about 30 years after having written the notes as a movement for the string quartet. There are arrangements for clarinet, choir, solo organ and even techno and rock bands. There are so many adaptations but they still reflect its original meditative quality, as if a stream grows into a river and subsequently into an ocean.

We also hear Vladimir Horowitz's performance of Scarlatti's Sonata in B Minor, as well as Tibetan composer and singer Yungchen Lhamo with her composition Someday. Found on her 2006 album, Ama, she is able to infuse an ancient spiritual quality in her voice to a modern sensibility. Her pieces are composed in New York City, as she maintains an exile from Tibet while continuing to share her message of peace.

Get lost in the sound. Get lost in the language of the music.  And if you listen long enough, maybe you'll hear an image of yourself.

Playlist:

Samuel Barber: Agnus dei

Robert Shaw, conductor

Robert Shaw Festival Singers

Telarc

Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata in B Minor, K 87

Vladimir Horowitz, piano

RCA

Yungchen Lhamo: Someday

Yungchen Lhamo, vocals

Real World

Phil Kline: The Blue Room

Ethel

Cantaloupe

Vivian Fung: Miniatures (for clarinet and string quartet)

John Bruce Yeh, clarinet

Maia Quartet

Cedille

Antonio Carlos jobim: Meu Amigo

New York Voices

Claudio Roditi, trumpet

Paquito D’Rivera, alto saxophone, clarinet

MCG

J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugure No 16 in G Minor, BWV 885

Edward Aldwell, piano

Nonesuch

Edward K. “Duke” Ellington: Come Sunday

City of Birmingham Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle, conductor

Angel/EMI

Philip Glass: Echorus

La Pieta Angele Dubeau, violin

Analekta

Mamadou Diabate: Soundiata

Mamadou Diabate, kora

World Village

Manuel De Falla: Harpsichord Concerto (for Harpsichord, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Violin and Cello)

New York Philharmonic

Pierre Boulez, conductor

Igor Kipnis, harpsichord

CBS/Sony

Manuel De Fall: El amor brujo

Maria Barrientos, soprano

Manuel De Fall, piano

Angel/EMI

Frank Bridge: String Sextet in E flat Major

Concertante

Kleos

Samuel Barber: A Hand of Bridge, Op 35

Adirondack Chamber Orchestra

Gregg Smith, conductor

Premier