By 1731, the year Antonio Vivaldi composed his Trio in G minor, RV 85, the plucked instruments that had enjoyed widespread popularity in the Renaissance—such as the theorbo and especially the lute—had become a bit passé to Italian audiences; indeed, only one other work in Vivaldi's output, the C major Trio, RV 82, from the same year, shares the G minor Trio Sonata's scoring for violin, lute, and continuo. Nonetheless, the inclusion of the lute in this work renders Vivaldi's characteristically balanced, dramatically crafted sound in a slightly new texture—one that would likely seem refreshing even to those cynical observers who unfairly criticize the prolific composer for musical boilerplating.

The first and longest of the G minor Trio's three movements (Andante molto) is dominated by a carefully paced melody rendered by the violin and often doubled by the lute, the latter occasionally departing into colorful arppeggiated figuration. The doubled lines never seem redundant—they are timbrally very engaging—while those spots where the lute breaks into florid accompaniment highlight Vivaldi's characteristic textural juxtapositions. The second movement (Larghetto) seems cut of a cloth similar to that of the first, except for the more intensively expressive ascending half steps that appear throughout the melody. After these two staid movements, the brief Allegro finale of the G minor Trio seems almost perfunctory. Still, by speeding up the deliberate pace of the opening movement and condensing the gestural expression of the second, Vivaldi ends the work with on an animated note, as well as with a sense of structural and emotional balance.

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