Warwick-Evans formed the idea of a string quartet worked up to the standard of a solo virtuoso, and approached Waldo Warner.

[7] At the outbreak of war later in 1914, Petre was called up to serve in France and his place was taken successively by Wynn Reeves, Herbert Kinsey, and Edwin Virgo.

In addition to a great number of concerts in London and England they undertook many international tours, notably to America, France, Portugal, Spain (twice), Scandinavia (thrice), (Germany) and Canada.

Their prestige in America, North and South, was very considerable, and they travelled from Canada to Buenos Aires, performing much new music as well as Beethoven quartet cycles.

The 'live' Library of Congress recordings demonstrate its most vital, sensitive and convincing musicianship in ways that even its studio discs occasionally fail to show.

Irving Kolodin wrote: 'In the Flonzaley's later years,... they seemed to have become a committee of experts matching exquisite swatches of tonal texture rather than performers of music.

For young ears, the rise of the London String Quartet (with the incomparable James Levey as leader, and the enduring partnership of Thomas Petre, H. Waldo Warner and C. Warwick Evans participating) dimmed the Flonzaley star even as it was waning.

A more vibrant enthusiasm, a stronger sense of tonal colours, a refinement that was not raffiné, gave them pre-eminence as long as this personnel endured.

This, in truth, was not long, and though Levey's successor was John Pennington of the honeyed tone, and William Primrose first showed his prowess as a violist in Waldo Warner's place, it was not the same thing.

'[8] As live Library of Congress recordings irrefutably demonstrate, Kolodin's implication that the Levey-led quartet declined when Pennington and Primrose took their places in the ensemble is very much wide of the mark.

Harry Waldo Warner also won distinction as a composer of chamber music, including six published string quartets and a trio.