César Franck's piano trios include, in addition to a single study written in 1834 as "Opus 6", four trios composed between 1839 and 1842: the Trois Trios concertants, Op. 1 (published 1843), and the Trio concertant No. 4, Op. 2 (published the same year), which is the finale of Op. 1 No. 3 published separately. The three trios of Op. 1, published in the spring of 1843, date from the period when Franck interrupted his studies at the Paris Conservatoire, returned to Belgium, and began his career as a pianist and composer. Dedicated to Leopold I, then King of Belgium, Op. 1 consists of three pieces: No. 1 in F-sharp minor, No. 2 in B-flat major (known by Franck's own designation as the "Trio de salon"), and No. 3 in B minor. Today, No. 1 is the most widely known.

Trio No. 1 is in three movements and is written in cyclic form, where themes and motifs from the first movement appear throughout all movements. This demonstrates the nascent stages of the compositional technique that Franck would later develop. The two middle sections of the second movement are developed from thematic material of the first movement. In the subsequent third movement, the theme from the first movement is recapitulated in the development section and coda, thereby achieving a unification of all movements.