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The six quartets of Haydn's Op. 33 may have more nicknames than any other set of quartets. They are often referred to as the "Russian" quartets, so named because Haydn dedicated them to Grand Duke Paul of Russia and their first performances took place in the Vienna apartments of the Duke's wife. They are also commonly known as the Gli Scherzi because they are the first chamber works in which Haydn substituted scherzi for the traditional minuet movements. Occasionally they are called the "Maiden" or the "Jungfernquartette" because a drawing of an attractive young woman appeared on the title page of an early edition.

Whatever we may call them, these quartets were, Charles Rosen notes in The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, "revolutionary quartets." The quartets are remarkably concise: thematic material is frequently pared to a minimum, accompaniment and melody are often identical, interchangeable, or easily transformed from one to the other, and transitional figures and phrases are eliminated almost completely. Rosen refers to the new style as an integrated texture in which linear vitality is present in every instrumental part, where the former distinctions between melody and obvious accompaniment disappear. Haydn wrote that these quartets were written in "an entirely new and special style." One critic observes that the way in which the Op. 33 quartets "play with the conventions of genre and musical procedure is of unprecedented sophistication; in thus being 'music about music,' these quartets were arguably the first modern works."

The appearance of Op. 33 in 1781 was the first major event of what was to become a crucial decade for the Viennese string quartet as Mozart and other composers joined Haydn in cultivating the genre. Haydn's Op. 33 had an important impact on Mozart, who, between 1782 and 1785 composed six magnificent quartets and dedicated them to Haydn. All the elements of Classical quartet style as it has usually been understood first appeared together in Mozart's "Haydn" quartets.

The first movement of the sixth quartet of Op. 33 illustrates Haydn's "entirely new and special style" in its thematic transformations; its melodic subjects are often introduced and freely imitated by the other instruments. The Andante, in three-part ABA form, is in a minor key; the second violin and viola introduce its solemn melody against a long, sustained note in the first violin. The Scherzo exhibits a hardy, peasantlike vigor with its offbeat accents; the cello's graceful melody signals the contrasting middle section; the jolly scherzo returns to round out the movement. The Finale, although its material is weighty and provides balance to the preceding movements, ends the quartet on a cheerful note. It opens with sharply contrasted themes: the first is a lilting tune in the major key; the second, in the minor, spins out an intricately contrapuntal web in all four instruments. Three variations on these two themes follow before the movement comes to its happy conclusion.

Smetana is one of the most celebrated composers of his native Bohemia (today part of the Czech Republic). His music captures the flavor of folk songs and dances and depicts the Bohemian landscape, especially in the tone poem The Moldau, the orchestral pieces that comprise Ma Vlast (My Country), and in the string quartet "From My Life" (1876), which the Bergonzi Quartet performed for us in its September 17, 2002 concert.

Smetana's three contributions to the chamber music repertoire were all inspired by real incidents in his life. The first, the Piano Trio in G Minor (1855), represents the composer's reaction to the death of his first-born child, the musically talented daughter Bediska (Friederike). On its first performance in December 1855 with the composer at the piano, contemporary critics thought that the work's rhapsodic nature went against the aesthetic ideal of chamber music of the time, but the reception was not wholly unfavorable.

Smetana explained the impetus behind "From My Life," a work unique in chamber music for its subjective nature and its us of a programme. "I wanted," he said, "to depict in music the course of my life ... the composition is almost only a private one and so purposely written for four instruments which, as in a small circle of friends, talk among themselves about what has oppressed me so significantly."

Smetana's third contribution to chamber music, the second string quartet, was composed in his final years, when, as a consequence of his worsening state of health, he was able to compose only in snatches. Noting that this quartet, his last important work, goes against the more stable norms of the genre, commentators observe that it is characterized by "remarkable shortwindedness," an "aphoristic character," and a density of musical expression that looks forward to the tendencies of future music. The impact of the music on future composers may be represented by a comment by Arnold Schoenberg (though not substantiated) that has been handed down in the Smetana literature since the 1920s. Schoenberg is reported to have said that the second quartet "opened the world to him." In 1883 Smetana suffered a complete mental breakdown; hospitalized the following year, he died in an insane asylum shortly after his sixtieth birthday.

Dvorak is considered by both Czech and international musicologists to be Smetana's true heir. A viola player himself, Dvorak seems to have felt a natural affinity with chamber music; the genre remained central to his work and was significant at crucial points in his artistic development.

The String Quartet in E-Flat represents the predominance of a nationalistic style in Dvorak's music probably to a greater extent than in any previous work. Jean Becker, who asked for Slavonic features, commissioned the quartet. In response Dvorak concentrated on folklike themes and forms: elements of the polka in the first movement, the dumka in the second, and the skacna in the fourth. The music is characterized by striking triadic melodies, catchy thematic elements, and the dominance of formal repetition.

Dvorak composed Op. 51 in 1878 when events in his personal and artistic life had brought him contentment: the birth of his daughter (following the earlier losses of two children), and the successes of his first set of Slavonic Dances, the Slavonic Rhapsodies, and the string sextet. The first movement of Op. 51 reflects his contentment; its first theme is radiant and calm, its phrases ending in little figures that recall the dance rhythms of the polka. A more intense second theme leads to the development section, which relies mostly on the first theme for thematic material; a recapitulation based on the second theme precedes the coda, where the first theme returns to conclude the movement.

The dumka is a Slavic song of narrative character with sudden changes from melancholy to exuberance. Here Dvorak presents the opening lament in the first violin with viola echoes over strummed harplike chords in the cello. A Furiant, a lively Czech dance with frequently shifting accents, changes the mood, but the lament returns. In a final contrast, a coda based on the Furiant ends the movement.

Less nationalistic than the other movements, the short, intimate Romanze consists of a songlike theme; Dvorak demonstrates his ability to develop, ornament, and transform this theme with imagination and ardor.

The Finale theme resembles the skacna, a fast and boisterous Bohemian reel dance. After its initial statement in the first violin, the theme appears in all the other instruments. A slower, more serious subject interrupts the jollity of the moment, but even this theme falls under the power of the dance. Dvorak casts the movement in sonata form, and in the development of his two subjects, he brings the quartet to an exuberant climactic close.