Dvořák wrote the terzetto in a few days in January 1887. Two violins and viola is an unusual combination of instruments: it was written to be played by violinists Josef Kruis and Jan Pelikán, with the composer playing viola. Josef Kruis was a chemistry student who rented a room in the same house where the Dvořák family lived; he was taking violin lessons from Jan Pelikán, who was a member of the National Theatre Orchestra.
The music proved to be too difficult for Josef Kruis, so Dvořák wrote an easier work for the same instruments, now known as Miniatures (in Czech: Drobnosti) Op. 75a (B. 149). He arranged this as a work for violin and piano, entitled Romantic Pieces.
The first public performance of the Terzetto in C was on 30 March 1887 in Prague, given by Karel Ondříček (brother of the virtuoso violinist František Ondříček), Jan Buchal and Jaroslav Šťastný. It was published in 1887 by Simrock
WIKIPEDIVIDEO: Nikolaj Znaider (Violin), Boris Kuschnir (Violin), Gérard Caussé (Viola) Divonne Festival -- 29th of May, 2003
