Cambini, a violinist in the famous Italian String Quartet, whose Boccherini was the cellist, settled in Paris in 1770. Mozart met him during his trip in 1778 and discovered his string quartets with admiration. Cambini composed 170 Quartets (!) whose the concertante style (in which the 4 instrumentalists seem to converse while taking one after the other the soloist role of a concerto) will be at the origin of the Brilliant Quatuors (in which the first violin takes the lion’s share), then very appreciated in Paris.