Franz Schubert’s monumental String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor was written in 1824 after the 27-year old composer had been hospitalized and knew that he was terminally ill. The title “Death and the Maiden” is taken from the quartet’s second movement, which is based on a song of that title Schubert had composed years earlier. Although Schubert did hear the quartet performed privately, the work was not published until three years after his death at age 31. The towering piece is considered one of the most important chamber music works in the repertoire, and an intense reflection on life and death. Gustav Mahler undertook the arrangement heard here for  string orchestra in 1896.