I: Allegro vivace

This movement is classic Schubert. Everywhere you turn, it seems, he has put in an extra little harmonic twist or melodic turn that teases and delights at the same time. The movement is also based around the relationship between two moods: one confident and the other wavering. We see this right from the start, with a bold A major chord being followed immediately by an unsure, wavering theme. So unsure, in fact, that it "accidentally slips" into the distant key of F major... huh, how did that happen? We'll be asking that question several more times before this movement is over, because those "Schubertian" harmonic turns happen quite frequently in this movement.

One thing that Schubert used to great effect here is timbre, or the "sound" of the instruments. Whether it is the high, giddy trills from the piano or the suspenseful rumbling of the bass, the characteristics of the sound seem to always match the mood of the moment. A great example is when the music returns to its second theme in the recapitulation: the tune is played squarely in the center of the cello's richest range, which gives the music a more complete sound while heading towards the end of the movement. Contrast this with the first time we heard this: it had been played higher up on the cello, and thus hadn't been quite as warm-sounding. (That's me playing the cello and let me tell you that it would be a lot easier to hear these subtleties of sound if I was a better player, but for now just try to believe me on this.)

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