The second movement is a relatively conventional minuet in triple time, with the first section of the minuet not repeated. It is a seeming moment of relative calm written in Db major, the more easily notated enharmonic equivalent of C# major, the parallel major of the main work's key, C# minor. The slight majority of the movement is in piano (p), but a handful of sforzandos (sfz) and fortepianos (fp) helps to maintain the movement's cheerful disposition. It is the shortest of the movements and has been called the "less popular" interlude between the first and third movements. Franz Liszt is said to have described the second movement as "a flower between two chasms".