Like so many of his compatriots, the Czech-born Vaclav Pichl spent much of his working life in Vienna (where the Empress Maria Theresa, preferred him to Mozart), but with a period working for Dittersdorf (in what is now Rumania) and nearly twenty years spent in Milan. His compositions were performed at Eszterháza by Haydn, who had a set of Pichl's "new quartets" copied in 1780 (he wrote over 30 quartets in all).His compositions were performed at Eszterháza by Haydn, who had a set of Pichl's "new quartets" copied in 1780 (he wrote over 30 quartets in all).