The string quartet holds pride of place in Bologne de Saint-Georges instrumental works, with three sets of six works each.Â
With neat but surely unintentional symmetry these quartets include his first and last instrumental works, the Six quatuors à cordes, Op.1, and the Six Quatuors concertans, Op.15.
The present quartets fall midway between these two publications. Composed in 1777 (according to Gabriel Banat, the best and most recent of Saint-Georges’ biographers) the Six Quartetto concertans were issued two years later in a breathtakingly inaccurate edition by Durieu in Paris.
Given the unusually high number of errors and inconsistencies in Durieu’s edition it seems most unlikely that Saint-Georges was involved in its preparation. No other edition of the quartets is known although a second printing of the set using the same plates was made ca 1782.
Quartet I in Bb major Quartet II in G minor Quartet III in C major Quartet IV in F major Quartet V in G major Quartet VI in Bb major