Classical Preview: Accept no substitutes for Vertavo concert

I broke the news in the media; the administration forgave them, and the Vertavo Quartet went on to win the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, one of the world's most prestigious instrumental events.

The four-girl format still remains. Though they reverted to their original membership some months later, the "replacement", who had learned the music for the competition on the long flight to Australia, has become one of Norway's finest solo violinists.

Having received the nation's highest music award with the Grieg Prize, they have, in the past 15 years, toured much of the world, and have made some of the most highly regarded quartet recordings.

They now come together just for periods each year so as to enjoy married lives and other commitments, an arrangement which they say takes away tedium, and makes each meeting that much more pleasurable.

Their concert appearances are all the more sought after, and as they are usually restricted to the world's major concert venues, a journey to Halifax's Square Chapel next week, is a rare and absolute necessity.

The programme includes the first of Beethoven's opus 18 quartets, a shift to modernity in Bartok's Fourth, and concludes with the third quartet by Schumann.

Vertavo Quartet, Square Chapel, Halifax, February 26, 7.30pm. 01422 349422.