 The slow movement features the cello in a pensive "cantilena", and a shifting, unstable harmony that settles on E minor only at the end .The third movement is a fugal scherzo with a fleetness comparable to Mendelssohn and a dense chromaticism that recalls Schoenberg .Its exaggerated staccato and duple meter resemble the scherzos of the Flute Quintet and the Sixth Symphony, respectively, while the pizzicato A-minor chords at the opening and close recall the scherzo movements of the string quartets by Debussy and Ravel .