Adagio Strings, adieu

[rkacruiser]

delgados129,

 

Thanks for posting that video. They sounded good to me.

 

I would think there will always be music of some type in the Explorer's Lounge. Maybe just a different combination of instrumentalists than what many of us have experienced.

[Himself]

Just back from a 42 T/A on the Maasdam. Wife and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the Adagio Strings. This last sailing the 'ladies' were simply wonderful...wonderful. It pains me to say that the Adagio Strings are being let go...I was told that their contracts were not being renewed.

 

I could certainly think of betup. I was sorryter ways to save money than letting these special gems slip away :confused:

ino gro

 

I think HAL will still have classical strings in the Exploers lounge. Before the Adagio strings--a group I love--they had the Rosario Strings--a Phillipino group I also enjoyed!

[bobpatj]

We're just home from the wonderful Maasdam cruise, too. It is true that HAL will replace the quartets with a piano player and violin, but still will play classical music. The quartets will be missed. :mad: There was good music all over the ship. The HALCATS were the best we've heard, and there was good dance music in the Ocean Bar, the piano bar was always full and the female guitar player did a great job.

[rkacruiser]

We're just home from the wonderful Maasdam cruise, too. It is true that HAL will replace the quartets with a piano player and violin, but still will play classical music. The quartets will be missed. :mad: There was good music all over the ship. The HALCATS were the best we've heard, and there was good dance music in the Ocean Bar, the piano bar was always full and the female guitar player did a great job.

 

Pat,

 

On the Volendam's Auckland-Sydney-Vancouver voyage this Spring, there was a young man from South Africa who played guitar and sang. He was excellent, just as your female guitar player must have been. His venue was the Piano Bar when the piano bar entertainer was not there and the young man packed the room.

 

Good music on HAL will continue to be the norm, I think.

[kazu]

Pat,

 

On the Volendam's Auckland-Sydney-Vancouver voyage this Spring, there was a young man from South Africa who played guitar and sang. He was excellent, just as your female guitar player must have been. His venue was the Piano Bar when the piano bar entertainer was not there and the young man packed the room.

 

Good music on HAL will continue to be the norm, I think.

 

We had ANTHONY on the Westerdam and he was truly talented - a real Spanish flair to him - and really remarkable. Excellent - Our pianist and violinist had some struggling moments and DH's and my ears hurt for a few minutes during one particular session - each to their own - I don't care who plays - but I do think they should have talent;)

[TiogaCruiser]

In 2008 Adagio Strings was a violin and Piano. They played mostly contemporary/ pop and some token classical. On our most recent cruise it was a mediocre quartet which played mostly show tunes. Once we had a true classical chamber quartet that packed the lounge. They played mostly classical- including a movement a night of Vivaldis four seasons. Heaven! They even played Ashoken Fairwell for one of the pax who brought his harmonica and they performed together. There were many misty eyes in that room.

[the2ofus]

Quite honestly, I won't miss the string quartets. Twenty years ago the people who played in these groups were experienced and talented and were truly quartets or quintets who had actually played as a group prior to coming onboard. (The Rosario Strings was the umbrella organization if I remember correctly. ) In more recent years the Adagio Strings groups have sounded much less polished, less professional and more than a few were clearly not used to playing as an ensemble. Individually they may be adequate musicians but as an ensemble, no.

[YubaSutter]

Not a big deal for me. I've always thought Adagio Strings were boring.

[tandkquinn]

Quite honestly, I won't miss the string quartets. Twenty years ago the people who played in these groups were experienced and talented and were truly quartets or quintets who had actually played as a group prior to coming onboard. (The Rosario Strings was the umbrella organization if I remember correctly. ) In more recent years the Adagio Strings groups have sounded much less polished, less professional and more than a few were clearly not used to playing as an ensemble. Individually they may be adequate musicians but as an ensemble, no.

 

This was my experience on the Noordam last January, too. They were just... I dunno.... mechanical, and they didn't seem to be together in some sense. Moreover, they spent more time on break than playing.

[Sophiebaby]

The Adagio Strings are one of the reasons I keep coming back to HAL...again and again and again. I understand the changing passenger demographics. Perhaps HAL should retain such chamber music groups on the longer cruises with more passengers who are "up there" in years as I am! I sure hope they are on my upcoming 49-day voyage.

[MarkW-FL]

The Adagio Strings are one of the reasons I keep coming back to HAL...again and again and again. I understand the changing passenger demographics. Perhaps HAL should retain such chamber music groups on the longer cruises with more passengers who are "up there" in years as I am! I sure hope they are on my upcoming 49-day voyage.

 

 

My son is a 19-year old classical trumpet student, and he couldn't stay away from the Adagio Strings (or the jazz trio, for that matter) on our ms Westerdam cruise last winter. We're sailing on the ms Amsterdam in two weeks, and I know he'll be disappointed if there is no classical music onboard. So rest assured it's not just an age thing! (P.S. -- I'm encouraging him to bring his trumpet along for the ride in case there's any opportunity to play. So if all else fails, ____ !)

[Viesczy]

We're off the Westy's Hawaii/South Pacific cruise, the girls didn't mention anything then.

 

I can't recall their names now, the pianist had red colored hair, but they both were fine musicians.

 

I did request some upper tempo pieces which was met with a look that said they weren't able to play anything other than funeral dirges. Which was unfortunate because as a musician playing the Godfather theme 30 days in a row at 14 beats per minute gets older than the continental shelf.

 

There is nothing more invigorating than throwing caution to the wind and tearing through a technically challenging piece that showcases the hours/years of training!

 

Derek

[kazu]

The Adagio Strings are one of the reasons I keep coming back to HAL...again and again and again. I understand the changing passenger demographics. Perhaps HAL should retain such chamber music groups on the longer cruises with more passengers who are "up there" in years as I am! I sure hope they are on my upcoming 49-day voyage.

 

nice suggestion - the Adagio Strings on our Prinsendam cruise last November were the BEST I have ever heard:D I truly hope they remain on the Prinsendam for our 31 day cruise in May:) The room was packed every night - no wonder with the talent that was there:)

[Himself]

I was on the Nieuw Amsterdam in November and we had the Adagio strings and it was four talented musicians who played srring instruments and all classical music.

[magandab]

I just arrived home today from the Oosterdam. There was an Adiago duo in the explorer's lounge. They played on and off from 6:30 to 10:30 every evening, with breaks. The lounge was standing room only every night. During breaks when some people would get up and leave, the standers would scramble for seats and wait out the break. Yes they were THAT good.

 

They were good enough that they were given the Vista Lounge one evening for the two big shows, both packed.

 

They finished their contract but hope to be back. This was two young men from Hungary, David on the violin and Atilla on the piano.

 

More on my wonderful cruise later, but had to share this now,

[Tinknock50]

Just so they don't go back to that middle eastern group they had for a while. They were truly awful. They were there between the Rosario Strings and the Adagio Strings. I think a lot of people agreed with my assessment because they didn't seem to last long.

 

On any of my recent HAL cruises, the many talented musicians from Eastern Europe were great!

[magandab]

I just arrived home today from the Oosterdam. There was an Adiago duo in the explorer's lounge.

 

Sheesh- I really do know how to spell Adagio - Jetlag!

[moniquet]

Just returned from the Westerdam. There, it was just "Adiago." It was just a violin and a piano.

 

Yes, a bit disappointing. Taking requests was a big mistake...Bonny and Clyde played on a violin...yuk:rolleyes:

[SwissMyst]

Just back from a 42 T/A on the Maasdam. Wife and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the Adagio Strings. This last sailing the 'ladies' were simply wonderful...wonderful. It pains me to say that the Adagio Strings are being let go...I was told that their contracts were not being renewed.

 

I could certainly think of better ways to save money than letting these special gems slip away :confused:

 

Back from the Oosterdam where the string quartet was replaced with a spectacular piano/violin duo now just called Adagio. They were brilliant. Too often we found the former Adagio string quartet merely sawed out limited numbers with variable degrees of professional accomplishment. So, so far this change was a positive improvement and highly appreciated by the recent Oosterdam crowd.

 

And the plate of complimentary chocolates was still there in the Explorers lounge. Just like the main entree choices we found on the Ooosterdam - smaller quantity, but much higher quality. Okay with us.

[Typhoon1]

Very sad. They will indeed be missed.

[luxurysailer]

We've been cruising with HAL for about twenty years and I regret to say that the experience has been significantly diminished during the past few years. The onboard experience was a very important part of cruising for us; but, unfortunately, HAL has downgraded or discontinued entirely several entertainment venues that we always enjoyed very much. Consequently the onboard experience has become much less enjoyable. For this reason, as well as the fact that we've about exhausted our ocean liner cruising "bucket list," we're considering moving on to other types of travel.

[HALFans]

<SNIP>Too often we found the former Adagio string quartet merely sawed out limited numbers with variable degrees of professional accomplishment. So, so far this change was a positive improvement and highly appreciated by the recent Oosterdam crowd.<SNIP>

 

Just off the Zaandam, and the Adagio Strings were so bad I couldn't listen to them at all. A violin/piano duo would have been much better with decent musicians.

 

We've seen some good ones though, and one of my favorite cruise memories is entering the ship for the very first time and having the musicians playing in the Atrium to greet us. Wow. It was like a movie.

[magandab]

If anyone is interested, this will take you to three song performed by the duo we had the privilege of listening to on the Oosterdam up until Wednesday. The first three on this site are David and Atilla. I have no idea where these were recorded.

 

http://www.veengle.com/s/david%20kovacs.html

[G&G]

Interesting about the Adagio Strings. As previously posted in other threads, HAL had a new production show called ENCORE that incorporated the Adagio Strings into the HAL band. It is the best production show I had ever seen and the two shows I saw both received standing ovations !

[innlady1]

Back from the Oosterdam where the string quartet was replaced with a spectacular piano/violin duo now just called Adagio. They were brilliant. Too often we found the former Adagio string quartet merely sawed out limited numbers with variable degrees of professional accomplishment. So, so far this change was a positive improvement and highly appreciated by the recent Oosterdam crowd.

 

And the plate of complimentary chocolates was still there in the Explorers lounge. Just like the main entree choices we found on the Ooosterdam - smaller quantity, but much higher quality. Okay with us.

 

It sounds to me that HAL is trying to improve things...the Adagio Strings are sometimes good/sometimes not so good. I'm looking forward to hearing "Adagio" if they are on the Ryndam in January.