What is Siegmund Nissel?
'''Siegmund Nissel''' (January 3, 1922 – May 21, 2008) was a[[British]] [[violin]]ist who played second violin in the famous [[Amadeus Quartet]]. Siegmund (Sigi) Nissel was born in [[Munich]] to a [[Jewish]] family from [[Vienna]]. He began playing the violin at the age of 6. His mother died when he was 9. He was taken by his father to Vienna, where his teachers included Max Weissgärber. Soon the political situation became dangerous for Jews in Austria and so, in 1938, the young Nissel was sent from Vienna to [[Great Britain]]. When [[World War II]] started Nissel was [[interned]] on the [[Isle of Man]]. There he met the violinist [[Peter Schidlof]] and later [[Norbert Brainin]]. They played a lot of music together. Then they were set free because they were talented musicians. They studied with the famous violin teacher [[Max Rostal]]. There they met the British [[cello|cellist]], Martin Lovett whose wife was a pupil of Rostal. The four men played [[string quartet]]s together, with Peter Schidlof now playing [[viola]]. At first they called themselves the Brainin Quartet, but then Nissel had the idea of the name Amadeus Quartet (Amadeus being one of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart's]] names). The Amadeus Quartet (which their friends often called the Wolf Gang), gave its first concert in the [[Wigmore Hall]], [[London]] in 1948. The hall was full and hundreds of people were turned away. After this concert they were invited to perform all over the world. They became the most famous string quartet group of their time. They made about 200 recordings. They were especially known for playing quartets by the great [[Classical music period|classical]] composers [[Mozart]], [[Beethoven]], [[Schubert]] and [[Brahms]], but they also played works by 20th-century composers such as [[Bartók]] and [[Benjamin Britten]] (who wrote his third quartet for them). Nissel was the one who organized all the business side for the group. When Schidlof died from a heart attack in 1987, the Amadeus Quartet no longer existed.