Simile of the week

"The timpani part has been colorfully (and sympathetically) described as sounding 'like a hamster with unclipped nails locked in the dryer.'"

[Thanks to Jens F. Laurson, via Elizabeth Bergman's program notes, on Jörg Widmann's Con brio (2008), performed last Friday by Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.]