A five-week tour of Australia starting on September 9, 2009 was already in the pipeline when they decided to call it a day with Ensemble 360 next summer.

Elias cellist Marie Bitlloch resolutely insists it was not a contributing factor in the decision, nor was accepting the offer of a mini-residency, as Marie calls it, at the Wigmore Hall.

"No, no, not at all. We've been trying to manage both our ensemble and quartet career for three years and we've always found it difficult.

"We've been trying to find a way of making it work but in the end, whatever we did, it didn't leave us enough time, or energy. It's been difficult to do both to the right standard."

It would be entirely understandable if either one or both tipped the scales as the Elias came to Sheffield as an aspiring, developing string quartet of enormous potential and it has been realised.

They have contributed massively to the terrific success of Ensemble 360 and, looked at brutally, as things stand, an illustrious string quartet career could be in jeopardy.

First and foremost, the Elias are a string quartet and the Wigmore mini-residency – "basically, something we can put on our CV," says Marie – is for three years and entails three or four concerts a year, the first taking in three of the big Schubert quartets and quintet.

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