Whatever happened to the scherzo?

It’s frequently said and that Brahms was not at ease with the scherzo. The theory is that, because harmonic complexity increased continually during the nineteenth century, it eventually became impossible to write the kind of fleet of foot Allegro that is often found in Haydn and Mozart. This week we’ll examine this assertion by listening to a Mozart minuet, a Beethoven scherzo and intermezzi by Mendelssohn and Brahms.

… and, just to prove the theory wrong before we’ve even started, here’s Jascha Heifetz accompanied by Emanuel Bay playing the Sonatensatz (the scherzo from the FAE sonata).

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