A decade ago Samuel (Adagio for Strings) Barber wrote a piece of music for Dancer Martha Graham called Cave of the Heart. It dealt with a Medea-like woman whose consuming love turned to hate and revenge; the score followed the choreography closely in mood and motion. Last week Dimitri Mitropoulos and the Philharmonic-Symphony played Barber's recomposition of the same scenes, called Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance. It turned out to be a meatier work for full symphony than as a dance accompaniment, with the same virtues—and the same faults—that have made Barber, 45, one of the most-performed of contemporary American...
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