The German composer and violin virtuoso Andreas Romberg (1767–1821) wrote extensively for the string quartet beginning in the 1790s. His earliest forays into the genre were greeted with enthusiastic approval from Joseph Haydn, to whom Romberg dedicated his Three String Quartets, Op. 2, composed between 1797 and 1799 and first published in 1802. Featuring extensive employment of contrapuntal writing and flexible handling of musical function, these quartets reveal Romberg to be a masterful and ima...