Scherzo. Allegro molto

Franz Schubert String Quartet n. 14 D.810 Death and the Maiden
Third movement: Scherzo. Allegro molto

So different from Bach’s algorithmic complexity. Here, the music surges and plunges: the guiding principle appears not to be mathematic but hormonal. The movement starts with a compelling sense of dramatic impatience which, alternating with a weightless free-falling drama, suggests two lovers meeting after long separation and who begin to breathlessly hunt down their climax together. Close your eyes and you really can imagine them in front of you, fucking the daylights out of each other. The middle section of the movement is quieter, slower: a pause, our protagonists caressing each other, quietly sharing their happiness in being together again, but their appetites are not yet satisfied and they return to their duties with an orgasmic plunge over the edge of the cliff, falling through the air, all judgement and reason blown away by the gorgeous animal force of their desire.