There exist at least two versions of Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 3, Op. 73, for larger ensembles. Rudolf Barshai, the violist and conductor, has created a chamber orchestra version with strings plus pairs of woodwinds, a work which he calls Chamber Symphony, Op. 73a. However, there is one other transcription of the Third String Quartet for a chamber orchestra consisting solely of strings, Vladimir Milman's arrangement, which he calls Chamber Symphony No. 2. Milman's arrangement is a straightforward expansion of the five-movement quartet for string orchestra, with the basses occasionally doubling the cellos and soloists sometimes drawn out of the body of players.

Barshai's transcription is a true chamber symphony. Milman's transcription is the quartet writ large. Neither will please purists but Barshai's has the virtue of adding interest while Milman's has the virtue of staying closer to the original.

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