Martinů conceived the idea of composing Concerto da camera (String Quartet No.7) in May 1947, just two weeks after the premiere of String Quartet No.6. He decided to dedicate it to his wife Charlotte and completed it on 24 June 1947. Shortly after completing the work, he made corrections to the score, mainly concerning changes in articulation and, to a lesser extent, in the pitches. Already when completing the work, Martinů had the title Concerto da camera in mind. The premiere, performed by the Kroll Quartet, took place on 10 January 1949 in New York's Times Hall in the presence of the composer, who was well impressed by it. A second performance took place on 14 January 1949 at The Coolidge Auditorium in Washington, D.C. The Kroll Quartet's concert was broadcast by station WQQW-FM and recorded on tape. After that, the Concerto da camera fell into temporary oblivion. There was indeed manuscript performance material, housed at Boosey &Hawkes, but the long wait for a printed edition - the composer offered his work to four different publishers in succession - probably contributed to the fact that no other ensembles were found to take up the work. In May 1957 Martinů considered offering the work to the Novák Quartet, but the score and parts were not published by Southern Music Publishing until mid-1958. The composer was dissatisfied with the parts, in which the page turning was inconvenient.
Although Martinů mentioned several times in correspondence with his wife that he wanted to dedicate the Concerto da camera to her, he did not write any dedication on the autograph score, nor does he mention it in correspondence with other people. Charlotte, however, wrote in her notebook that the work was dedicated to her. Since the dedication is not contained in any of the surviving sources, the critical edition does not add to it.
Aleš Březina, Hudební rozhledy, 6/2020