Joseph Haydn's string quartet Op.33 occupy a special place amongst his works for quartet. After not having composed any string quartets for almost ten years, this series, written in 1781, marked the beginning of a long phase of continuous work on the genre up to the last unfinished Quartet Op.103 in 1803.
Moreover, they are the first string quartets that we definitely know he wrote with publication in mind. A new contract of service in 1779 not only permitted the Kapellmeister at Prince Esterhazy's court to take on external commissions for compositions but also to arrange for the circulation of his works, thus generating extra income.