With the sad death of the viola player Peter Schidlof three weeks ago, one of the world's greatest string quartets has decided to disband, a few months short of its 40th anniversary.
The Amadeus String Quartet was formed by three refugee Austrian musicians, Norbert Brainin , Siegmund Nissel and Peter Schidlof , who had met in a British internment camp during the Second
World War, and were later joined by the English cellist Martin Lovett. They gave their debut concert in the Wigmore Hall in January 1948 and for the last four decades have established a reputation for excellence, particularly in the Viennese classics. Tonight, in tribute, BBC2 is repeating the last major interview they gave, to Bernard Levin in 1981, followed by a complete performance of one of the masterpieces of the classical quartet repertoire, Mozart's K465, known as The Dissonance.
Directors TAMASIN DAY LEWIS BARRIE GAVIN. NEIL DA VIES