string quartet no. 8
OPUS NUMBER | 80 |
BURGHAUSER CATALOGUE NUMBER | 57 |
COMPOSED | 20 January - 4 February 1876 (revision: 1888) |
PREMIERE - DATE AND PLACE | (?) 19 November 1888, Hamburg |
PREMIERE - PERFORMER(S) | (?) Marwege, Oberdörffer, Schmehl, Klietz |
FIRST EDITION | Simrock, 1888, Berlin |
MAIN KEY | E major |
PARTS / MOVEMENTS | 1. Allegro 2. Andante con moto 3. Allegro scherzando 4. Finale. Allegro con brio |
DURATION | approx. 27 min. |
composition historyDvorak wrote his Quartet in E major during a period in which his works were characterised by unusual melancholy and reflection. The work appeared in close proximity to his nostalgic Piano Trio in G minor, and shortly before he embarked upon the first version of his Stabat mater. Dvorak produced the quartet in a single sweep over the space of a mere fourteen days at the end of January and beginning of February 1876. He gave the quartet the opus number 27 yet, since he inexplicably only offered it to his publisher Simrock twelve years later, the work eventually came out in print in 1888 under a different number, Op. 80. |
![]() first page of the score |