When Haydn first came to London in 1791 he was impressed by the practice of playing "God Save the King" at public performances.   God Save the King was not actually called "the national anthem" at that time; it was more of a patriotic hymn.   Haydn composed his own "Emperor's Hymn" as Austria's national hymn.   (The piece would later be appropriated by Germany for its own national hymn.)   In 1797 when Haydn composed his string quartet in C Major Op.76 No.3, he included a fine set of variations on the hymn that he had composed for the Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Mozart's String Quartet in C K.465 is one of a set of six that Mozart dedicated to Joseph Haydn.   It is sometimes known as the "Dissonance", although today's audience are unlikely to notice any discord whatsoever.   Mozart could bash off a piano concerto in a couple of days, but composing string quartets was much harder work - especially when the intention was to compose something really worthy of dedication to Joseph Haydn.   Mozart worked for more than three years on this set of six string quartets.

The String Quartet in E flat that Beethoven wrote in 1809 is often known as "the Harp" because of its use of arpeggio and pizzicato in its first movement. It is an attractive quartet, perhaps written to appeal to a wide audience.

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Winners of the St. Martins in the Fields Chamber Music Competition and the Martin Musical/Philarmonia Scholarship Fund 2010 the Piatti Quartet are fast emerging as one of the UK's leading young string quartets. Previous recipients of the Tunnell Trust Award and selected as Park Lane Group Young Artists in 2009/2010, more recent news includes a second year as Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellows at the Royal Academy of Music and winning the St Peter's Eaton Square Prize 2011. Since 2009 they have performed at the Purcell room, Southbank, and live on BBC Radio 3 numerous times. Over the last year, they have enjoyed several very exciting collaboration projects with Austrian pianist Gottlieb Wallisch and clarinetists Emma Johnson and Sarah Williamson as well as a successful second year of their very own ‘Piatti Chamber Music Festival at Kingsand’. The Piatti Quartet had their Wigmore Hall debut in February 2011 and are looking forward to returning there in April 2012. Also returning to the Conway Hall, 2011/2012 will see the quartet extensively touring the British music scene as part of both the prestigious Countess of Munster and the Making Music recital schemes and taking part in both the Melbourne and Geneva International String Quartet Competitions 2011.

The Quartet has gained much musical inspiration from many great quartet musicians and particular influences include members of the Amadeus Quartet, Alban Berg Quartet, Artis Quartet, Alisdair Tait and Jon Thorne. In 2009 they received the MBF Ensemble Award to attend the International Sommerakademie Prague/Vienna/Budapest where they performed throughout Austria. 2011/12 will see the Quartet return to Madrid, studying on a full Scholarship with Gunter Pichler of the Alban Berg Quartet at the International Institute of Chamber Music Of Madrid and study with Johannes Meissl of the Artis Quartet Vienna, with the support of the Hattori Foundation.