[Op. 90]. 3 Quatuors pour Deux Violons, Viole et Violoncelle composées [!composés] et dediées [!dediés] a Monsieur Joseph d' Illos... Oeuvre 90.. Pr. [blank]. [Parts]

Vienne: Imprimerie chimique [PN 2080], 1813. Folio. Contemporary light tan paper-backed blue marbled boards (Violino primo) or wrappers (other parts) with retangular label to upper titled in manuscript. Violino Imo: [1] (title), 2-39, [i] (blank) pp.; Violino IIdo: 25, [i] (blank) pp.; Viola: 24 pp.; Violoncello: 22 pp. Lithographed.

Some measure numbers added in pencil in a modern hand.

Bindings somewhat worn, rubbed, and bumped. Slightly to moderately foxed; upper portion of Violino primo part very slightly dampstained. [?]First Edition. Weinmann: Senefelder-Steiner-Haslinger 1, p. 117. RISM K2692 (no copies in the U.S.). The (truncated) present edition is the only one of these three quartets listed in RISM. It was first announced in the Wiener Zeitung on June 10, 1813 (see Weinmann). Othmar Wessely, however, cites the date of the first edition as "?1809" (in Grove Music Online) or "ca. 1809" (in MGG2) and Vienna as the place of publication but does not mention a publisher. WorldCat (no records of an earlier edition). The key of the first quartet (C minor) is correctly given in MGG2 but misrepresented as E-flat major in RISM.

These string quartets are not to be confused with the quartet for flute, violin, viola, and violoncello published under the same opus number by André in Offenbach.

"Krommer was one of the most successful of the many influential Czech composers in Vienna at the turn of the 18th century. His creative output comprises over 300 works... Krommer’s reputation is attested by the rapid spread of his compositions in reprints and arrangements by German, Danish, French, English, Italian and American publishers... He was regarded (with Haydn) as the leading composer of string quartets, and as a serious rival of Beethoven... His modes of expression extend from the galant style of the earlier 18th century to Romanticism." Othmar Wessely in Grove Music Online. (Inventory #: 25741)