The first volume of the new scholarly edition contains the complete chamber music without a keyboard instrument. The most important group of works comprises the string quartets, 10 of which have survived. They were composed during the 1770s, when Haydn was developing this class of music. The differing balance between such contrasting musical elements as entries in imitation, courtly melody, swift changes of tempo and unexpected modulations gives each of the quartets its special charm. The fact that six of them were published in 1784 as Kraus's "Opus 1" by the publisher J. J. Hummel shows that the composer himself was convinced by his quartets. With the Flute quintet this volume also contains another key work in Kraus’s chamber music. Composed in Vienna about 1783 and also issued in manuscript copies, this work was printed by Ignaz Pleyel in Paris in 1799.