Pichl Quartett B-Dur op 13/2

Czech-born composer and violinist Václav Pichl (1741-1805) spent much
of his working life in Vienna, but also played in a court orchestra
under Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and was a music director in Milan
for almost twenty years. He not only impressed the Empress Maria
Theresa, who preferred him to Mozart, but also Joseph Haydn, who had a
set of his new quartets copied in 1780.
This second volume in the series of his Op. 13 quartets exploits each
instrument equally - even the viola is allocated elaborate solo
passages - and offers an attractive alternative (as Haydn realised at
the time) to the standard Viennese works of this period.