The String Quartet with Orchestra, composed in 1931, is Bohuslav Martinů's first concertante work, in which he openly takes inspiration from and purposefully experiments with the baroque form of the concerto grosso. This composition is an organic part of a set of works in a new style, which uniquely adopts the neoclassicism of the 1920s. The initial impulse for the composition of the String Quartet with Orchestra came when the Belgian Pro Arte Quartet asked the composer to create a concertante work for solo string quartet and orchestra for the 1931/1932 concert season. The world premiere took place on March 20, 1932, in Marseille (Théâtre de nations, Salle Prat), performed by Pro Arte and an unspecified orchestra, apparently assembled just for this occasion. The premiere was conducted by Georges Sébastian. The composition can be seen as a work synthesizing one of the lines of the composer's development and representing an important milestone in his conception of concertante compositions.
Christopher Hogwood, Pavel Žůrek, Marek Pechač, The Bohuslav Martinů Complete Edition: Quadruple Concertos, series III/2/4, Prague: Bärenreiter, 2018.