Who were the members of the Amadeus Quartet?
Q: Who were the members of the Amadeus Quartet?
A: The Amadeus Quartet was composed of Norbert Brainin (first violin), Siegmund Nissel (second violin), Peter Schidlof (viola) and Martin Lovett (cello).
Q: How did the three original members meet?
A: The three original members, Norbert Brainin, Siegmund Nissel and Peter Schidlof, met in an internment camp during World War II. They had been sent there as "enemy aliens" because they were foreign nationals from a country Britain was fighting against.
Q: How did they come up with their name?
A: The group initially called themselves the Brainin Quartet after first violinist Norbert Brainin. However, second violinist Siegmund Nissel thought it sounded better to call the group by one of Mozart's names - Amadeus - so they renamed themselves the Amadeus Quartet in 1948.
Q: What kind of music did they play?
A: The Amadeus Quartet played classical string quartets by composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms and W. A. Mozart as well as works by 20th-century composers like Béla Bartók and Benjamin Britten.
Q: When did they give their first performance?
A: The Amadeus Quartet gave its first performance as a group at London's Wigmore Hall on Jan 10th 1948.
Q: Why did they stop performing in 1987?
A: The quartet stopped performing in 1987 after the death of violist Peter Schidlof.
Q: When did all four original members pass away?
A:Norbert Brainin died in 2005 and Siegmund Nissel died in 2008 while both Martin Lovett and Peter Schidlof passed away before them in 1987
