Tiësto — Adagio For Strings

By 2005 Tiësto was closing Olympic ceremonies, and this trance reworking of Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings is the record that got him there. It is unashamedly enormous — a two-minute breakdown of pure strings with no drums, just a promise — and then the kick returns and the roof leaves the building. The late-classic anthem everyone still agrees to call classic.

Samuel Barber composed the original Adagio For Strings in 1936, based on the second movement of his String Quartet Op. 11. Tiësto had been closing with an unofficial edit of the William Orbit orchestral arrangement (from Pieces In A Modern Style, 1999) since 2003; the licensed 2005 rework was cut specifically for his Just Be album and its accompanying Solar Tour. Ken Bauer at Nettwerk brokered the mechanical clearance with the Barber estate.

Tiësto rebuilt the piece in Cubase SX3 at his Breda studio, sampling the Orbit strings, layering a Spectrasonics Trilogy sub-bass and Waldorf Q lead, and building a 138 BPM four-on-the-floor underneath. The famous two-minute breakdown at 3:15 uses only the original Barber string samples, unprocessed, at their natural pitch — Tiësto has said in interviews he 'wanted the audience to forget for a moment they were at a dance show.'

Reached #29 on the UK Singles Chart on Nebula/Black Hole and topped the Dutch Dance Chart for four weeks in summer 2005. Tiësto closed the 2004 Athens Olympic Ceremony with an early edit — an audience of four billion. DJ Mag voted it #3 Trance Track of the Year 2005; Pete Tong opened his Radio 1 Ibiza broadcast with it on 12 August 2005.

• UK Singles Chart#29
• Dutch Dance Chart#1
• Billboard Hot Dance Airplay (US)#5

• 3:15The kick drops out. Pure Barber strings for two minutes.
• 5:10Kick returns with the full string climax.
• 6:30Extended outro — the record's DJ-friendly landing.

• Album Mix (2005)

  The Just Be album version.

• Radio Edit (2005)

  3:45 cut serviced to Radio 1 and MTV Dance.

• Cosmic Gate Remix (2005)

  Harder, more tech-trance reworking.

• Tiësto 2014 Rework

  For Tiësto's Club Life Vol. 3; largely disowned by original fans.

The record split the classic-trance audience — purists argued it marked the moment Tiësto stopped being a trance DJ and became a stadium act — but its influence on 'epic trance' is undeniable. Above & Beyond's 'Sun & Moon' breakdown, Armin van Buuren's 'Shivers' string arrangement, and virtually every 'orchestral trance' cut of the late 2000s owe it a direct debt.

• The Barber estate reportedly took a one-time licensing fee rather than royalties — a decision worth an estimated $2M in unpaid mechanicals over the following decade.
• Tiësto's Athens Olympic set was the first time in history a working DJ soundtracked an Olympic Opening Ceremony.
• William Orbit's 1999 arrangement — which Tiësto sampled — was itself already a chart hit in the UK at #4.