Recorded on the album Walk Across the Surface of the Sun (Albany Records)

Scherzophrenic is something of a scherzo gone wrong, drawing on the character and structure of a typical scherzo while sometimes veering away errantly. Rhythm propels the piece relentlessly and virtuosically throughout, with the cello moving back and forth between registral extremes. Eventually the music splits itself into several distinct ideas that occur more or less simultaneously, leading to an ever-more frenzied persona that is whisked upward at the end, as if it suddenly evaporates.