Unlike his great contemporary Mozart, who died at 35 in 1791, Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) lived long enough to be feted as a musical colossus in his own lifetime. Writing in the influential, Leipzig-based ‘Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung’ in 1801, Johann Karl Friedrich Triest explains: “all the composers of symphonies and quartets lag behind the man who has plied his craft for almost an entire half century with ever new, inexhaustible, genuinely amazing power, and became the greatest benefactor of German instrumental music”.

The Amsterdam String Quartet is one of today’s leading period instrument string quartets. The ensemble specialises in the repertoire of the golden age of the string quartet: from 1762 to 1847. The Amsterdam String Quartet performs the works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn as well as the finest works of their lesser known contemporaries.

Its members are all internationally respected specialists at the forefront of the early music scene. The Amsterdam String Quartet enjoys a busy international concert schedule, and presents its own concert series in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. They play on historical instruments.