Amadeus Quartet: Journey to the 5th Quartet Part 3
Established careers and later life.
In 1969, the Amadeus Quartet premiered Joseph Horovitz’s 5th Quartet. This piece of music had been composed in honour of the art historian E.H. Gombrich on the occasion of his 60th birthday, at the request of his publishers, Phaidon Press. Three members of the Amadeus Quartet, as well as Horovitz, Gombrich, and Phaidon Press itself – including its founders, Ludwig Goldscheider and Horovitz’s father, Béla Horovitz – had all escaped Nazi persecution in Austria and made their way to England prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. Horovitz remembers that, whilst writing the piece, his memories of emigration from Vienna formed the psychological backdrop; ultimately, he realised that he was ‘writing a political quartet,’ which had been ‘the last thing [he had] wanted to do’ (Horovitz, interview with Association for Jewish Refugees/Bea Lewkowicz, 2021). The 5th Quartet, then, is a piece born out of recollections of flight – an experience shared by so many of the individuals connected to it. This series of storymaps will trace the paths taken by these individuals, along with Phaidon Press, from their Central European origins to their lives and careers in England. Reading these stories side-by-side, across the places in which they unfolded, illustrates clearly the poignant origins behind the highly-mobile lives of these individuals, and spans the historical transition between a lost world of Central European culture and the burgeoning cultural life of Britain in the post-war years. Each of these maps illustrates well the importance of transnational mobility to these individuals.
In this map, we will trace the later years of Horovitz, Gombrich, and the Amadeus Quartet, including Horovitz’s gradually-developing career as a composer, the steady growth of the worldwide fame of the Amadeus Quartet, and the evolution of Gombrich’s distinguished career as an academic art historian.
To use this storymap, simply scroll through the slides; at any point, you can interact with the right-hand maps, images, videos, and other items by clicking on them. To use the embedded Google Streetviews, first click on them, and then interact with them as normal by using your mouse.
This work was produced as part of 'Music, Migration, and Mobility,' an AHRC-funded research project conducted led by the Royal College of Music in conjunction with the Paris Lodron University, Salzburg, and Royal Holloway, University of London. Click here to return to the project homepage, or click here to return to the project's collection of storymaps. Click here to return the other storymaps in the Amadeus Quartet collection.
(Image credit for header image, National Archives of the Netherlands, ( CC0 1.0 ))
The Amadeus Quartet. (Courtesy, National Archives of the Netherlands (CC0 1.0))
Following their initial successes as a group, British Council and CEMA funding raised the possibility of the Amadeus Quartet undertaking European tours. CEMA was the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, which went on to become the various Arts Councils of England, Scotland, and Wales.
After some initial unease, given the personal histories of three members of the group, they eventually agreed to conduct a German tour. Across the group’s career, Germany would go on to become one of their most regularly- and extensively-frequented countries whilst touring. Click here to view a map which outlines the Quartet's touring activities.
This basemap depicts the division of Germany and Austria by the victorious powers in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.
Joseph Horovitz. Courtesy, Royal College of Music.
Joseph Horovitz, meanwhile, was by now embarking upon his own career. In 1950 he was appointed musical director of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre.
The exterior of Coopers' Hall at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre. (Credit, Rodw. ( CC-BY-4.0 ))
Following this, he undertook work as a conductor for an array of ballets and operas, and with this work he too toured Europe and the United States.
In 1953, the Amadeus Quartet received their first invitation to perform in concerts in America.
Despite the extent of their international touring, the members of the Amadeus Quartet were by now well-rooted in their adopted home of Britain, too, and many were with growing families to support. To take Siegmund Nissel as an example, in 1957 he married Muriel Griffiths, having become naturalised as a British Citizen in 1948. His daughter was born in 1958, and this was followed by a son in 1962.
In 1954, the Amadeus Quartet undertook their first world tour. An American tour one year followed by a world tour the next was a pattern the group followed (approximately) for the next forty years or so.
E.H. Gombrich. (Courtesy, National (Archives of the Netherlands (CC0 1.0))
In 1959, Gombrich was appointed the first professor of the history of the classical tradition at the University of London, and would go on to hold this role until 1976. He had previously been professor of the history of art at the same institution
Senate House, University of London. (Credit, Babelstone ( CC-BY-3.0 ))
In the same year, Gombrich was also appointed director of the Warburg Institute.
The Warburg Institute. (Credit, philafrenzy ( CC-BY-4.0 ))
Harvard University. (Credit, Chen Si Yuan ( CC-BY-4.0 ))
Remarkably, in 1959 Gombrich also found the time to take on a visiting professorship at Harvard. This was one of a number of encounters with American academia, and in 1964 he would go on to be awarded honorary membership of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences.
The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Credit: S.J. Price
Previously, Gombrich had been a professor of art history at Oxford (1950-53).
King's College, Cambridge.
He would also go on to become professor of art history at Cambridge (1961-63).
The Arts Quad at Cornell University. (Credit LBM1948 ( CC-BY-4.0) )
Gombrich was also professor of art history at Cornell University from 1970-1977. He would also hold a number of visiting professorships and lectureships, including abroad.
Joseph Horovitz’s career continued to advance, and he found himself gradually transitioning to composition.
From 1961 he held the post of professor of composition at the Royal College of Music in London. He has been a council member of the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain since 1970.
The Royal College of Music. (Credit David Iliff ( CC-BY-3.0 ))
Outside of his university career, Gombrich also became embroiled in a major controversy at the National Gallery, relating to the tactfulness (or not) of the cleaning of Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne.
Gombrich also received a CBE in 1966.
Later, in 1972, he would be awarded a knighthood.
Elsewhere, Gombrich also became Lethaby professor at the Royal College of Art (1967-1968).
On 1st June 1969, in a concert at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Amadeus Quartet premiered Joseph Horovitz’s 5th Quartet.
It had been commissioned by Gombrich’s publishers, Phaidon Press, to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of the eminent art historian.
The Victoria and Albert Museum. (Credit, David Iliff ( CC-BY-SA-3.0 ))
Horovitz remembers:
"A Quartet of mine was premiered by the Amadeus Quartet […] Which was dedicated to another refugee, believe it or not, Sir Ernst Gombrich, the famous art historian. And he was a family friend – my father, of course, Phaidon Press published all the books by Gombrich, and I was commissioned to write a string quartet for Gombrich, and Gombrich asked for it to be played by the Amadeus Quartet, so after many years of friendship between individual members of the Amadeus Quartet, eventually they premiered a work of mine, and broadcast it on the BBC [...] The background, psychologically, was my memories of the emigration from Vienna. It’s a very pure piece of music, very abstract, but it actually has overtones of a Viennese folk song, which emerged in the course of the composition, and I seized on that, I didn’t plan it that way, and it became a kind of focal point in the middle of the quartet, and I used it as I went on writing the work, at which point I became conscious of a political content to this work, and it includes an actual quotation of a few bars from the Horst Wessel Song, rather a bizarre and in a way quite frightening thing to put in. But I did that when I realized I was writing a political quartet, which was the last thing I wanted to do. In fact the quartet tried to be descriptive of my thoughts and feelings on the influence of Ernst Gombrich’s books on the history of art, so it’s a very far-fetched kind of influence, but it was a very real one." (AJR/Lewkowicz, 2021)
The British Museum. (Credit, Ham ( CC-BY-3.0 ))
Appointments continued to accumulate for Gombrich. He was a trustee of the British Museum between 1974 and 1979, and was a member of the Museums and Galleries Commission between 1976 and 1982.
In 1974, Siegmund Nissel was appointed professor for violin at the Scuola di Musica in Fiesole.
Fiesole. (Credit, Sailko ( CC-BY-3.0 ))
Benjamin Britten (right) pictured with Mstislav Rostropovich following a concert (Credit: RIA Novosti archive, image #25562 / Mikhail Ozerskiy / ( CC-BY-SA 3.0))
In 1976, shortly after the death of Benjamin Britten, the Amadeus Quartet premiered the composer’s 3rd String Quartet in Aldeburgh. This was the last major work produced by Britten.
Hochschule für Musik und Tanz, Cologne. (Credit, Raimond Spekking. ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ))
In the same year, the Quartet received a professorship for music at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne.
Throughout their career, the Quartet were widely recognised, and received many awards. In 1970, each of the members received an OBE. They were also awarded honorary doctorates from the Universities of York, London, and Caracas.
In 1971, they each received the Great Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, which was bestowed upon them at the German embassy in London.
The Bundesverdienstkreuz, or Cross of the Order of Merit. (Credit, Maik Meid ( CC-BY-3.0 ))
In 1974, the members of the Amadeus Quartet were awarded the Cross of Honour for Science and Art of the Republic of Austria.
In 1986, the group received a professorship for music at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
The Royal Academy of Music, London. (Credit, philafrenzy ( CC-BY-2.0) )
The teaching activities of the Amadeus Quartet would go on to have a significant impact on the future of chamber music, tutoring as they did members from a range of significant later quartets, including the Auryn, Belcea, Carmina, Chillingirian, Petersen, and Skampa quartets.
Peter Schidlof died on 15th August 1987, shortly after his 65th birthday, near Bassenthwaite, in the Lake District of the northwest of England.
Bassenthwaite Lake. (Credit, Douglas Gemmell. CC-BY-2.0 ))
With Schidlof’s death, it was agreed that the activities of the Amadeus Quartet as a group should cease.
At this point the Quartet had played over 4,000 concerts worldwide, and made over 200 recordings.
A flyer for a memorial concert in honour of Peter Schidlof. Courtesy of the archives of the Royal College of Music.
Individually, however, the members of the Amadeus Quartet continued to work musically. In 1995, for instance, Siegmund Nissel took over the professorship for violin at the Franz Liszt University of Applied Sciences in Weimar.
The Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar. (Credit, Dundak ( CC-BY-2.5 ))
E.H. Gombrich died in London on 3rd November 2001.
The blue plaque that sits on Gombrich's former home at 19 Briardale Gardens in Hampstead. (Credit, spudgun67 ( CC-BY-4.0 ))
Norbert Brainin died in London on 10th April 2005. He is buried in Bushey Jewish Cemetery.
Siegmund Nissel died on 21st May 2008 in London. His Stradivarius 1731 is today played by a member of the Belcea Quartet.
On Friday 26th May 2016, celebrations were held at the Royal College of Music to mark the 90th birthday of Joseph Horovitz.
And in May 2021, the composer's 95th birthday was celebrated with a special concert to mark the occasion at New College, Oxford. The programme included the composer's 5th Quartet.
Joseph Horovitz died on 9th February 2022, at the age of 95.
If you would like to see more work from the Music, Migration, and Mobility project, please click here to return to the project homepage, or click here to return to the project's collection of storymaps.
Sources / Further Reading:
Snowman, Daniel (1981), The Amadeus Quartet: The Men and the Music, Robson Books: London.
Snowman, Daniel (2003), The Hitler Emigres: The Cultural Impact on Britain of Refugees from Nazism, Pimlico: London.
