Sibelius’s oeuvre contains four string quartets. They appeared over a long time span and in different phases of his professional career. Most of his early compositions were chamber music, and he composed his three earliest quartets (in E flat major (JS 184, 1885), A minor (JS 183, 1889), B flat major (Op. 4, 1890)) around his study years. They remained unprinted during his lifetime, and the string quartet in E flat major was also not performed in public.

The quartet in D minor Voces intimae o...