Credits:

Lso String Ensemble

Description:

The LSO String Ensemble’s second SACD hybrid recording of the Schubert-Mahler version of “Death and the Maiden” and the Shostakovich-Barsky version of “Chamber Symphony”. The second album by the LSO String Ensemble, led by London Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Roman Simovich, features string ensemble versions of these two masterpieces. The arrangement of Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” for string ensemble proves that Mahler, a brilliant conductor, had a keen sense of conducting, and the wailing in the variations and the urgent final movement, as if driven by the Grim Reaper, add to the intensity and depth of the work. The String Quartet No. 8, arranged by Barshai with Shostakovich’s endorsement, also highlights the character of the original.This piece, written in only three days in 1960, is said to reflect his severely depressed state of mind at the time, as it treats as the central