The piano then falls back to a subsidiary role with shimmering thirty-second note accompaniment, while the theme builds in the viola to a powerful, C-major cadenza.

After a final, powerful statement, the music comes to rest in D; the piano attempts to stray to the minor mode with G-minor chords and F-naturals, but the viola insists on rising to an F-sharp.

Ruhig und einfach, wie ein Volkslied The theme of the second movement is, as the marking suggests, a simple, folkish tune introduced in e-flat minor by the viola.

Variation II returns to 2/4, and is a spry, rhythmic rendition of the theme in the viola over an accompaniment of staccato thirds and sixths.

Variation IV reaches a climax, with an ostinato accompaniment providing the grounding for the off-kilter rhythmic setting of the theme.

After some varied tonal wanderings, there is a strong buildup of dominant-preparation for A-flat major, in which key the piano restates the folk song theme while the viola plays the rhythmic coda-variant as a sort of counter-subject, creating a brilliant and beautiful synthesis.

The fugal treatment of the theme in Variation VI fastidiously avoids functional tonal harmony that the ear can follow.

The texture remains thin throughout, but the music increases in volume as the pianist adds octaves to both hands and the violist contributes two- and three-note pizzicati, giving strong but unexpected tonicization for E-Flat minor, in which key occurs the sonata's recapitulation.

The viola falls silent when the piano re-introduces the second-movement theme, entering in what was previously the accompaniment's role of playing the coda-figure.

After the pounding whole-tone ostinato of the previous measures, the hushed repetition of the second movement theme in E-Flat Minor is supremely unexpected.