These are the last of the nearly seventy quartets in Haydn?s oeuvre. Originally he intended to write a set of six quartets as so often in the past but at the time they were written in 1803 Haydn?s healthwas so poor that he could not fully satisfy the commission from Prince Lobkowitz. Instead he published only two complete quartets as Op. 77. Later he allowed an incomplete work consisting of two middle movementsto appear as op. 103 adding to the print the portentous words: ?Gone is all my strength old and weak am I.? Musically however these quartets are anything but weak: they represent the aged composer virtually at the zenith ofhis powers. Haydn even went so far as to call Op. 77 no. 2 his ?most beautiful String quartet?.

String Quartets Book II op. 9-Six works belong to opus 9 the first group of Haydn’s String quartets of which we know. The composer also went new ways as far as form was concerned: whereas he had still adhered to the five movement divertimento inthe previous quartets opus 1 and 2 in this case he favoured four movements something he continued in the future. Apart from this he also expanded the register and experimented with metric surprises (for instance in the trio ofthe minuet from the G major quartet).