By June he completed an Allegro movement for each of them, and showed them to Clara Schumann, who preferred the E♭ major piece.

[2] He completed the remaining three movements in the summer of 1882 while on vacation in the spa town of Bad Ischl, Upper Austria.

[2] The piece was the only piano trio shown to his confidants Clara Schumann and Theodor Billroth which was later published.

[4] The strings often play in unison, with strong melodic and contrapuntal importance, in contrast to the piano line.

[4] Each variation includes a rhythmic or melodic fragment from the original theme, but is otherwise harmonized, phrased, and ornamented differently.

[5] The movement features frequent syncopation especially in the coda, and the cello often echoes the violin in inversion.

[5] The third movement is a presto C minor in 6/8 time formally composed of a scherzo and trio: arranged in an ABA format.

It features frequent pianissimo dynamics, and suggests the same mood as the third movement of Brahms' Violin Sonata No.

[4] It is unclear if Brahms revised the trio section after hearing the critiques of Clara Schumann.

[5] The contrary motion featured in this movement was supposedly inspired by the arpeggios Brahms played in his daily warmup routine at the piano.

[7] The piece was premiered on December 29, 1882 by Brahms himself on piano, violinist Hugo Heerman, and Adolf Müller (Cellist of the Joachim Quartet at the time), at a chamber music museum concert in Frankfurt.

[8] The audience did not like the piano trio as much the string quintet, but Clara Schumann admired it for its fluid thematic evolution and phrase structure.

[7] Early performances of the piece occurred in Berlin, London, and Vienna in January of the following year.