It was premiered on 7 December 1892 at the Salle Érard in Paris, performed by Isidor Philipp, Henri Berthelier and Jules Loeb [fr].
It opens with a dark and ominous theme shared between the violin and cello, accompanied by widely spaced chords in the piano.
After a dramatic development section, the movement ends boldly with an unexpected plagal cadence in E minor.
It opens with a brief dark introduction before the piano introduces the main theme, cheerful in character.
The coda transforms the first theme into a moto perpetuo, which brings the work to a dramatic conclusion in the tonic minor.