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Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" is considered one of the most popular of all 20th-century classical works. Its 1938 premiere by the NBC Orchestra with conductor Arturo Toscanini is a recent selection for the National Recording Registry.

For the last 30 years, Mark E. Smith has led one hard-driving band and many, many band members. The latest incarnation of the post-punk collective has a new record out, one which features another impromptu Reformation of personnel.

The Tallest Man On Earth has a way of upending expectations and rendering familiarity moot.

On Ghost Notes, its first album in nearly a decade and the first by its original members since 1997, Veruca Salt embraces a throwback sound with obvious joy.

Hear a deceptive take on the winter blues by way of a versatile choir, a young New York composer and a 150-year-old poem by Longfellow.

Inspired by ice crystals in the arctic air and the halo-like apparitions they create, composer John Luther Adams' "Sky with Four Suns" blooms with the bright light of 45 cellos.

On this week's All Songs Considered, we share dance music from Belle & Sebastian and unreleased Velvet Underground, plus Bob Boilen discusses new discoveries from this year's CMJ Music Marathon.

Marking the 100th anniversary of the visionary composer's death, hear Debussy play his own music on a 1913 piano roll.

Hear a new piece by Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry that pulsates in time to the heartbeats of the musicians who play it.

The prolific psych-rock band's newest album — its second in only three months — traffics in alternately jittery and hypnotic jams.

Nearly 30 years into her career, Mazzy Star's singer still takes her time in the pursuit of beauty. Here, she works with My Bloody Valentine's Colm O'Ciosoig, as well as guests like Kurt Vile.

The Oscar-nominated Icelandic composer crafts an enveloping instrumental take on the Orpheus myth. His simple, haunting sketches use the familiar tale to comment on changes in his own life.

Blunderbuss, the first solo album by the former White Stripes guitarist is character-driven. He tells NPR's Guy Raz his songs have little to do with "male or female."

Cibo Matto has always been skilled at Trojan-horsing weird art within glossy, goofy songs (often about food), but the new Hotel Valentine isn't so concerned with disguising its intentions.

Millions of people mourn the passing of Queen Elizabeth II as she is laid to rest Monday.

President Biden will host Elton John for a performance on the South Lawn of the White House Friday for an event called "A Night When Hope and History Rhyme."

Actor Philip Glenister relishes his role as a fast-talking, chauvinistic boss in Life on Mars. The classic British sci-fi series features a detective who is hit by a car in 2006 and awakens to find himself in 1973.

The British early music group I Fagiolini delights in resurrecting huge — and yet totally unknown — works from the Italian Renaissance and early Baroque.

Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard snarls, sputters and howls through a rock and roll stomper that ain't messing around.

Classical music critic Tom Manoff isn't usually a fan of French Baroque music. But he's found a boxed set of motets that he likes from a composer who met a bizarre end.

The "beautiful singing" of the early 1800s marks an appealing milestone in the story of opera.

Mal Devisa and JD AKA ThrashKitten join the Chicago multi-instrumentalist for the extraterrestrial "dOn't turn me Off," a song dripping with positivity.

The anonymous song from 17th-century Iceland sports a catchy, bittersweet melody that pop outfits like Peter, Bjorn and John might be happy to whistle. Arve Henriksen joins the vocal trio on trumpet.

Puccini's genius: making an indelible opera out of ordinary people's stories. Vittorio Grigolo stars in this performance.

The musician born Marcos Garcia was known for years as a member of the Afrobeat ensemble Antibalas — but one day, he began tinkering with his daughter's Casio keyboard.