the autograph manuscript for this quartet is inscribed "october 1810", but the paper on which it appears does not match the variety beethoven is known to have used at that time. it is more likely that he finished it several months later. it premiered in 1814 and appeared in print two years later, dedicated to nikolaus zmeskall. beethoven stated in a letter to george smart that "the quartet [op. 95] is written for a small circle of connoisseurs and is never to be performed in public." upon listening to the piece, it becomes apparent why he made that assertion. this piece would have been quite out of character in 1810: it is an experiment on compositional techniques the composer would draw on later in his life. (techniques such as shorter developments, interesting use of silences, metric ambiguity, seemingly unrelated outbursts and more freedom with tonality in his sonata form.)