Janáček’s String Quartet No. 1, ‘Kreutzer Sonata’, was written in a very short space of time, between 13 and 28 October 1923. The composition was inspired by Tolstoy’s novella The Kreutzer Sonata, which was in turn inspired by Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9, known as the ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ from the name of its dedicatee, Rodolphe Kreutzer. Dvořák wrote his Op. 105 string quartet - his last work in this genre - in 1895, when he had returned to Bohemia after his visit to America.