The opening of Trio No 1 in G major is based on arpeggio statements followed by rather fussy semiquaver twisting scales; these latter are picked up for discussion before becoming adopted as the opening subject of the Allegro con brio. Their development as a four-note motif occupies much of the remaining material and has been cited as the musical expression of the philosopher Hegel’s theory that great events in life or history frequently arise through the natural consequences of the apparently inauspicious. The writing of the slow second movement in the far from orthodox submediant major (E) is, however, at odds with such an idea, and the whole work is perhaps especially rich in those very surprises which may have upset Viennese audiences. There are many doubts concerning the second Trio of the Scherzo movement (Hess 28) because it was excluded from the early editions.
from notes by Stephen Daw © 1998
