Andante: At a walking pace

Cantabile e grazioso: Singingly and gracefully

The key of E-flat major, a major third below the G major of Nos. 1 and 2, is established. It begins with a musical idea reminiscent of the slow movements of middle-period piano sonatas; following a pedal point on an octave B, a cadenza like a fluttering veil emerges, and thereafter it is written in a floating, late-period idiom. Its transparent brilliance is like celestial music, supremely beautiful. Finally, a faint afterglow delicately drifts away.