On today's date in 1806, Ludwig van Beethoven sent a letter to his German publisher Breitkopf and Härtel announcing that he could send them, if they liked, three new strings quartets—works we know today as the three "Razumovsky" Quartets that were eventually issued as Beethoven's Opus 59.

In Beethoven's day, Vienna was swarming with Russian, Polish, and Hungarian aristocrats with a taste for music. Among them was Count Andreas Kyrilovich Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador to Vienna. The count was himself a good amateur violinist who occasionally played second violin in a string quartet he maintained at his own expense.

The count commissioned Beethoven to write three string quartets, stipulating that they should incorporate Russian melodies, real or imitated. The most recognizable of the Russian tunes Beethoven employed occurs in the scherzo of the second quartet: It's the same theme that was later quoted by Mussorgsky in the big coronation scene of his opera "Boris Godunov."

When these "Razumovsky" Quartets were premiered in Vienna in 1807, one contemporary review noted that (quote): 'Three very long and difficult Beethoven quartets… are attracting the attention of all connoisseurs. They are profoundly thought-through and composed with enormous skill, but will not be intelligible to everyone."

In fact, when one Italian violinist confessed to Beethoven that he found them incomprehensible, Beethoven allegedly retorted: 'Oh, they are not for you, but for a later age.'