Like Dvorák’s third and fourth quartets (in D major and E minor respectively), String Quartet No. 2 in B-flat major was probably composed between 1868 and 1870, when the young and still inexperienced composer was openly responding to stimuli from his musical surroundings and excitedly adopting new compositional techniques. All three quartets were long considered lost; it was even said that Dvorák destroyed them. But copies of the parts resurfaced in the archive of the Prague Conservatory and have served as the principal source for this new publication.