Allegro quasi maestoso, 
A major 
Presto a capriccio, E minor
Allegro marcato, A minor
Allegro semplice, C major
Allegro moderato, D minor
Allegro, B minor

“The Intermezzi will be something—every note is being carefully doled out.” “The silly Intermezzo (No. 3) stays with me day and night.” “I feel a stirring inside me that perhaps is virtue. But my whole heart was poured into you, my dear Fifth Intermezzo, born with such ineffable love. Yesterday everything coalesced.”                                                                   Diary entry, 1832

Franz Schubert

Intermezzi  was what he called his newest cycle, composed shortly after Papillons.  The Intermezzi appeared during interludes in his work on a Symphony in G minor, which remained unfinished. A diary notice read: “Every one of the Intermezzi sprang directly from life; only the last details are wanting. It has been a beautiful week: pure, gentle, calm, and busy.”  The work contains a number of musical citations. They came from Lieder that Schumann had performed with the admired, married Agnes Carus (Beethoven’s “An die ferne Geliebte” and Schubert’s “Gretchens Spinnrad”), from Schumann’s own works (“Bin nur ein armer Hirtenknab” of 1828, and the trio from the second movement of the Piano Quartet of the same year), and notably the citation from the Abegg Variations, op. 1, in the last Intermezzo. The connection with the Abegg Variations continues with the musical representation of Agnes Carus’ first name (the interval employing the beginning “A” and ending “E-flat,” or “Es” in German).
 

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