"Before God and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me in person or by name. He has taste, and, what is more, the profound knowledge of composition." In those words, Franz Josef Haydn expressed his feelings about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) to Mozart's father, Leopold. The year was 1785, and the occasion was the playing of some of Mozart's six "Haydn" quartets. These had been composed over the years 1782-1785, and Mozart would soon dedicate them in print to Haydn, the noted father of the modern String Quartet.

Haydn's deep compliment was emblematic of the close friendship, mutual respect, and exchange of influences Haydn and Mozart shared during the latter's "Vienna years," the last ten of his life. Equally as heartfelt as Haydn's remark was Mozart’s motivation for writing the "Haydn" quartets. Unlike nearly everything else Mozart set his hand to at that time, these works were neither commissioned, nor for the composer's own professional needs, nor were they directed toward a particular nobleman. Mozart set about the project both for his own satisfaction and to honor the composer he held in the highest esteem.

Mozart had been profoundly impressed by Haydn's set of six quartets (Opus 33) published in 1781. Inspired by these works, he returned to the writing of string quartets after a lapse of ten years. It was between 1782 and 1785 that the six "Haydn" quartets were composed. As musicologist Alfred Einstein says, "Mozart did not allow himself to be overcome. This time he learned as a master from a master; he did not imitate, he yielded nothing of his own personality." He followed Haydn's lead in conceiving the string quartet as a four part discourse, shared by all the instruments. Their respect and admiration being mutual, Haydn was, in turn, to be influenced in his own subsequent quartets by these quartets of Mozart dedicated to him.

Mozart's "Hunt" Quartet, the fourth in the set of six, was completed in November 1784. Leopold Mozart was later to comment to his daughter that the last three quartets were "somewhat lighter" than the first three. This would aptly describe this work with its graceful opening movement containing motives reminiscent of a hunting song, or the calls of hunting horns, from which the subtitle "hunt" is derived. The second, Menuetto movement, illustrates a basic difference between the personalities of the two masters. For, while Haydn's minuets are generally full of boisterous wit (truly deserving his own term, scherzo) Mozart's handling of the form is restrained, aloof, and even restricted in its proportions. Despite its tendency toward lightness, the quartet's Adagio third movement is not in Mozart's inimitable "romance" tradition. Rather, it is a serious statement — transparent, yet tinged with Mozart's own brand of proto-Romanticism. Light and lightness return once more in the finale with its insistent, dance-like first theme. Yet, in spite of the delicate changes of mode and impeccable contrapuntal craftsmanship, this Allegro assai is a reminder of the newer style which Mozart's six "Haydn" quartets cumulatively developed through the years of their composition.