The hero of music of Austrian composer Franz Schubert, hailed the King of Lied, is a lonely, destitute personality. Schubert communicated his music via poems and soul, nurtured bright hopes and invested inner suffering with meaning. The latter was experienced by the composer himself. Schubert’s String quartet No 14 in D minor, which he composed while suffering from serious illness and financial hardship, is often dubbed his musical testament. The poetic title of the work Der Tod und das Mädchen (Death and the Maiden) derives from a musical quotation (used in the quartet’s second movement) from his song, set to Matthias Claudius’ namesake poem in 1817, written in the form of dialogue. The Maiden represents life, and Death appears as a friend, unlike in its traditional depiction. Controversial feelings, joy and suffering, the beauty of life and fight with death are rendered in the four movements of the quartet.

Schubert’s most popular quartet (Gustav Mahler’s arrangement for string orchestra) is performed by the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Sergej Krylov.