Used as we are to the strict protocol in place at classical music concerts today, it can be hard to grasp that the self-same music we now listen to with religious reverence and in absolute silence, paying it our full and undivided attention, was often played in the 18th century as background music at social events or gatherings – in the way modern pop is played in cafés and restaurants nowadays. In the latter half of the 18th century in particular, the Serenade and the Divertimento were at the height of their popularity, with composers both great and lesser-known writing multi-movement works of these types, some of them quite lengthy, to provide musical accompaniment for soirees hosted by kings, nobles, mayors and wealthy merchants. It was in this spirit that Beethoven wrote his Opus 20 Septet in 1799. The work received its public premiere on 2 April the following year at the very first concert Beethoven staged of his works in the Austrian capital. The young composer’s decision to dedicate the work to the Empress Maria Theresa was an ingenious move designed to win the favour of the powerful aristocracy.

The Septet proved a great success and its fame would soon spread beyond Vienna. Indeed, the work was being performed all over Europe within a year, earning the admiration of audiences everywhere. Its publication in 1802 would boost its popularity still further; shortly afterwards, the composer would score it for clarinet (or violin), cello and piano, and this trio version was just one of many arrangements in which the work would be performed in the years ahead. However, its success would soon begin to grate on the composer, in much the same way the triumph of his celebrated Bolero would annoy Maurice Ravel over a century later! This is because a hit of this kind would inevitably overshadow other works which, though Beethoven felt they expressed and reflected his musical identity more fully, were destined to languish in obscurity – or, at the very least, in the Septet’s shadow. An incident recalled by Beethoven’s pupil Carl Czerny shines a light on the composer's feelings about the Septet: when a visitor from London told the composer (proudly!) how popular the Septet was in the British capital, Beethoven cursed, saying: "Damn thing! I wish I’d burnt it!"

Nevertheless, even though the Septet was written primarily to delight its listeners, Beethoven could not stop being himself and poured all his art and imagination into the piece, as he always did. It is also worth noting how innovative the work was in the way it uses the woodwind instruments. Until then, chamber music works with strings (Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, for instance) had never featured more than one wind instrument. Which makes Beethoven’s Septet the first work in which three woodwinds blend successfully with the four strings. The two groups of instruments work together in two main ways in the music: sometimes, the strings and woodwinds form distinct groups that interact with each other (led, respectively, by the first violin and the clarinet), while at other times each instrument assumes a specific role and has its own soloistic moments that highlight its particular timbre – with the exception of the double bass, which is limited throughout the work to accompanying the ensemble and providing harmonic support.

With the violinist Eugene Albrecht at its head, the St Petersburg Chamber Music Association honoured Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1886 by electing him an honorary member of the Association. In response, the composer promised Albrecht to compose a work of chamber music and dedicate it to the Society as a courtesy. The composer sketched out some initial plans for a suitable work – a string Sextet – in June 1887, but was not in the right frame of mind at the time to proceed further with its composition. Tchaikovsky would only get down to doing the real work on the Sextet a few years later, in June and July 1890, when he completed a first version of the work. But the composer was still not in a particularly positive frame of mind, or working with particular confidence; on the contrary, feeling extremely insecure about his writing for strings, he asked Albrecht to study the manuscript and suggest any changes he deemed necessary. In December 1890, the work was performed privately in the composer's apartment in St Petersburg with a public chamber music concert following a week or so later, organized in the city by the local branch of the Russian Musical Society. The composer was still not satisfied with the results of his labours, however, and decided to extensively revise the Sextet, which he did between November 1891 and January 1892 (especially during a brief spell in Paris). The Sextet was published in June 1892, and a quartet led by the legendary violinist Leopold Auer performed the revised version of the piece in December that same year in St. Petersburg. The title "Remembrance of Florence" is the composer’s own, and commemorates the fact that one of the work's themes had come to him during a trip to Florence, where he also composed his opera The Queen of Spades, based on Pushkin's novella of the same name.