Noted for its smooth, sophisticated style, its seamless ensemble playing, and its sensitive interpretation, the quartet has often been seen as working within an Austrian tradition.

[1] Because of their Jewish origin, the violinists Norbert Brainin (12 March 1923 – 10 April 2005), Siegmund Nissel (3 January 1922 – 21 May 2008) and Peter Schidlof (9 July 1922 – 16 August 1987; later violist) were driven out of Vienna after Hitler's Anschluss of 1938.

Finally Schidlof and Nissel were released, and the three of them were able to study with violin teacher Max Rostal, who taught them free of charge.

The group gave its first performance as the Amadeus Quartet at the Wigmore Hall in London on 10 January 1948, underwritten by British composer and conductor Imogen Holst.

Though they emphasized a standard Classical and Romantic repertory, they also performed works by such 20th-century composers as Béla Bartók, and Benjamin Britten who wrote his last string quartet expressly for them, which they premiered after his death.