The French Suite No. 2 in C Minor is a virtuoso keyboard solo whose program elaborates the principal characters and situations in chapter one of Voltaire's picaresque philosophical novel, Candide. The third movement is a sarabande that paints a portrait of Candide, a sensitive but callow youth in the first flush of manhood. The longest movement in the suite, this music captures the changing moods and perspectives of Candide through striking harmonic inflections, textural variation, and an unusual sectional construction.