The Amadeus Quartet plays Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Bartók

The history of the Amadeus Quartet, regarded as one of the twentieth century’s most important string ensembles, is anything but trivial. To escape Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Second World War, Austrians Norbert Brainin, Siegmund Nissel, and Peter Schidlof found refuge in the United Kingdom, but were subsequently interned in a camp for “enemy nationals”. It was here that music became their refuge. Once released, the three musicians continued their training with violinist Max Rostal. In his class, they met British cellist Martin Lovett, and together they founded the Amadeus Quartet. From their first appearance on stage at Wigmore Hall in 1948, their unique sound, stylistic brilliance, and remarkably profound interpretations quickly established them as the heirs to a certain Viennese tradition and an emerging pillar of chamber music.

Discover their distinctive excellence in these archives. The centrepiece is Mozart’s Quintet No. 4, with its dramatic and poignant tones, likely influenced by the illness that was looming over the composer’s father at the time. Three intense and dramatic movements culminate in a finale marked by hope—as if often the case with Mozart—who approached death with a kind of serenity. Three movements from other quartets complete the programme: the lyrical and tormented Lento assai, cantate e tranquillo from Beethoven’s Quartet No. 16, the frenzied and swirling presto finale from Schubert’s Quartet No. 14 Death and the Maiden and the fourth movement of Bartók's Quartet No. 4, a sparkling pizzicato performance.