Amadeus Quartet

The Amadeus Quartet—self-styled as the Wolf Gang in a nod to Mozart, for whom it was named—dominated the music landscape for 40 years following its debut in 1947. Formed by three Viennese refugees from Hitler’s Anschluss of Austria—Norbert Brainin, Siegmund Nissel and Peter Schidlof—plus the English cellist Martin Lovett, the group’s sound was nurtured in the central European string tradition and became instantly recognisable for its generous full tones and heartfelt expressiveness. Renditions of classics by Haydn and Brahms anchor a discography that also includes the complete quartets of Mozart and Beethoven, while the quartet’s eagerness to probe musical pain and vulnerability ensured Schubert was another speciality. But there were also forays into 20th-century works by Bartók, Frank Bridge and Priaulx Rainier. And it was with the group’s distinctive qualities in mind that Britten wrote his elegiac chamber music swansong, String Quartet No. 3, Op. 94.