Without any commission or payment, purely for pleasure, W A Mozart composed this quartet for a "most esteemed" friend - the most wonderful work that was ever written for the oboe. Mozart always wrote his solo works closely related to the abilities of his performers: Ramm’s playing and virtuosity on the oboe must have really inspired him.

After numerous years as resident composer and Director of Court Music at the Esterhazy castle, Joseph Haydn’s fame as a great composer of genius had spread across all of Europe - no wonder, when one considers the consistency with which he developed the form of the symphony and the string quartet in more than 100 works, from 'Sturm und Drang' to the beginnings of Romanticism, not to mention his many other creations.