The late works of Shostakovich speak a unique language of desolation and isolation, and though the poems in this symphonic song cycle are ostensibly about death, they are also about the pain of life and the burden of living. Especially powerful are García Lorca's and Apollinaire's texts, which are blisteringly delivered by the imposing, resonant bass of Alexander Vinogradov, and the less idiomatic but no less powerful Gal James, who excels in The Suicide and The Death of the Poet. The Liverpool Philharmonic, now famed for its Shostakovich symphony cycle, plays with biting attack and total idiomatic understanding under Vasily Petrenko. Chilling.