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Although this quartet is numbered opus 12, it in fact precedes the Deux pièces pour violoncelle opus 5, as well as the Deux pièces pour hautbois opus 6. It represents the first major work by the young composer who had not yet celebrated his twenty-fourth birthday. It is possible, as Bernard Gavoty believed, that Vierne regarded it merely as a school exercise or as an opportunity to apply Widor's teachings, but there is nevertheless something more to it. The work is brimful of inspiration and radiates freshness and spontaneity, which makes it easy to overlook its few shortcomings and deficiencies. This early attempt already holds more than a mere promise and there are many quartets signed by names of great repute that are worth far less.
At the first performance, given by Messrs. Gurt, Borgna, Balbreck and Landormy at the Soiété de Musique Nouvelle in the small Salle Erard in Paris on February 24th, 1896, the audience called for an encore. Why then did Vierne judge the work so severely later on? He might well have felt that it did not bear enough of his own personal imprint (Ravel had the same attitude towards his Pavane for a dead infanta, which is nevertheless very successful musically). In spite of this, and with all due deference to the composer, the work drew more praise than criticism.
Jean-Pierre Mazeirat