LAZAROF: “MUSIC FOR STRINGS.” Chamber Music/LA. Laurel Records LR-843CD (compact disc).

The Serenade for String Sextet (1985) and the String Octet “La Laurenziana” (1987)--both premiered in Los Angeles--frame the disc. Both are big, three-movement works of characteristically intense sonorities and complex, varied textures, and both offer ample opportunities for tightly meshed virtuosity. The performances, under Lazarof’s direction, are incisively paced chains of explosions. Also included are the String Quartet from 1980, and Chamber Music/LA director Yukiko Kamei’s soaring, probing account of the Lyric Suite for Solo Violin (1983).