Summary
LEADERS of string quartets come and go, but Norbert Brainin led the Amadeus Quartet for all 40 years of that ensemble's epoch- making existence. It was to Britain's musical benefit that, as an Austrian refugee, he arrived with two of his colleagues, Siegmund Nissel and Peter Schidlof, just before the start of the Second World War and created what was initially called the Brainin Quartet just after the war ended.
Born in 1923, he studied the violin at the Vienna Conservatory. But it was in Britain, after Vaughan Williams and Myra Hess had secured their release from internment on the Isle of Wight and elsewhere, that he and his friends became pupils of Max Rostal in London. At that time all three were violinists, but Schidlof switched to viola so that they could form what was to become the best-loved quartet in the world, with Martin Lovett as cellist.See the full content of this document
Extract
Norbert Brainin
After its Wigmore Hall debut in 1948, the Amadeus - as it was named in tribute to the composer who was one of the pillars of its repertoire ...
See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
