Early tuition from J.B. Vanhal, lessons from Joseph Haydn and sojourns in Italy prepared Pleyel for his extraordinarily successful career as a composer. In 1795 he moved to Paris, where he opened a piano factory and set up as a publisher in which not only his own compositions were printed but also all of Joseph Haydn's quartets. Pleyel's oeuvre was so popular in the nineteenth century that innumerable arrangements were made - by himself or others - of his works. The second string quartet of his opus 8, written for the king of Prussia, was arranged for this elegant Duo.
