Antonín Dvořák composed the String Quartet No. 13 in G major, Op. 106 (B. 192), between November 11 and December 9, 1895.[1] It was first performed by the Bohemian Quartet in Prague on 9 October 1896.[1]
The 'playful, fluttering principal theme with which the movement opens' is followed by a seemingly remote second theme and countermelody, all of which becomes subject to some 'masterly' development (Šourek).
More like a rondo, with episodes in A-flat major and D major for trios, than a typical scherzo (as is more often found in this place in a string quartet in the Romantic music era).
Finale. Andante sostenuto – Allegro con fuoco
The brief Andante sostenuto, which is in 4 4 "common" time, introduces a vigorous finale in 2 4 time, and interrupts it toward the end of the work. The finale is in the work's main key of G major.
Andante sostenuto opening to the quartet's finale
(Dvořák's works have a confusing history of conflicting opus numbers, and so Jarmil Burghauser catalogued them more consistently in his book Antonín Dvořák; thematický katalog, bibliografie, přehled života a díla (Antonín Dvořák: Thematic Catalog, Bibliography, Life and Work), first published in 1960. It is because of this that Antonín Dvořák's compositions have Burghauser numbers used sometimes to identify them, with 192 used for this quartet.)[2]
Dvořák, Antonín. Five Late String Quartets. New York: Dover Publications, 1986. ISBN0-486-25135-7. Reprint of N. Simrock of Berlin publications – String Quartets Nos. 10–14 originally published 1879–96.
