Harold in Italy / Viola Concerto in A minor / Viola Concerto in B minor in the Style of Handel

"The question here is transfer quality. These are such well known and admired traversals that commentary is pretty much redundant and Primrose admirers tend to concentrate on the superiority or otherwise of the Goehr, pre-War London Casadesus/Handel or this American 1946 remake, and the various recordings Primrose left of the Walton and Berlioz. All are pretty much self-recommending whatever your particular preference, notwithstanding the changing timbral nature of Primrose's tone - its greater, tensile Heifetzian quality and faster vibrato in the post-War years.
To business then. Is it this Mark Obert-Thorn transfer of the Casadesus/Handel the preferred one or the Rick Torres for Biddulph? You can find the Torres transfer on LAB146 devoted to the great violist's recordings and you will find that it is palpably inferior to this Naxos. The new release has greater body, immediacy and definition and catches Primrose's tone with greater fidelity. As for the Walton I can only compare this latest transfer with the last EMI LP pressing, on Treasury EH2912761. Naxos certainly preserves more surface noise but, pound for pound, shilling for shilling, the Naxos edges it by virtue of its greater presence, without any artificial spotlighting.

There's a difference in transfer philosophies when it comes to the Berlioz. The leading contender is Dutton CDEA 5013 in which Mike Dutton used the 78s to transfer. But Mark Obert-Thorn has gone for a transfer from LPs with their wider dynamic range. It's a move that has paid off in this instance. The Naxos sound is brighter, and captures far more of the frequencies enshrined in the recording. In fact the Dutton sounds positively subterranean next to the newcomer with congealed bass frequencies all too honestly retained and an amorphous sense of the Boston Symphony's string section. With the Naxos you can very readily appreciate the string choir's separation and the greater sense of aeration in their transfer. There's also some scrunch in the Dutton that one doesn't find with the Naxos.

Given the competition A/B listening hands the palm to Naxos. The release also inaugurates a new Great Violists series, which is very welcome. Primrose has been well covered in re-releases, though can someone please find evidence of his Fricker and Rubbra concerto performances? In the meantime can I hope that Naxos gets to grips with Lionel Tertis' imperishable legacy. Biddulph has announced a set of his Columbia 78s but his earlier acoustic Vocalions have been shamefully treated over the years. It's time for a recording engineer and a company with vision and commitment to get to work and restore that body of recordings to the living catalogue, where it belongs."
-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International, July 2005

"If it was Lionel Tertis (1876-1975) who put the viola on the map as a solo instrument, it was the Scotsman William Primrose (1904-1982) who established a more modern, brilliant style, gradually taking his distance from Tertis's deeper tones. Modern listeners might have to "adjust" to Tertis, as they do to Kreisler or Szigeti, in order to appreciate them, but should have no such problems with Primrose, at least in Berlioz and Walton.
The Casadesus was actually believed to be real Handel when this recording was made, though with its delicate wind band in place of a continuo surely they must, even then, have realized that it had been, at the very least, thoroughly "doctored"? Under the circumstances one can hardly complain about an unauthentic approach - indeed, given its spurious romantic origin I suppose this is the authentic approach, though it might be amusing, one April Fool's Day, to try it out with a dedicated original instruments band.

Tully Potter tells us in his notes that the conductor Frieder Weissmann is best remembered for marrying the soprano Meta Seinemeyer on her deathbed. On a slightly less "Trivial Pursuits" level, he was nearly the first conductor to record all the Beethoven Symphonies, but became, instead, the first of several - another was Joseph Keilberth - who recorded a "headless monster": the first eight symphonies only. An immensely active recording artist before the war, he sank from view after it though his career lasted until at least 1960. Justly or not, he is now remembered only in relation to the famous artists he accompanied on disc.

The 1946 Walton recording was already the composer's second, the first having been made with Frederick Riddle eight years earlier. Modern listeners, accustomed to hearing this concerto played rather more lushly and romantically, might find the present version a bit relentlessly brilliant. Walton himself tended to be suspicious of his own more romantic side and appears to be encouraging this approach, no doubt hoping to disguise the fact that even in this fairly early work the enfant terrible of Façade was acquiring middle-aged spread. Later, in well-upholstered old age, he took to conducting the piece rather more slowly. He had in any case, in 1961, considerably expanded the orchestration, so your best chance to hear the original leaner conception is the present recording, dated but reasonably clear. A further recording by Primrose, with the RPO under Sargent and coupled with Hindemith's Die Schwanendreher under Pritchard, was issued in America by Columbia Odyssey and in Europe by Philips. It has been unavailable for at least two generations.

Primrose made three commercial recordings of Harold in Italy; the present version was followed by those under Beecham and Munch. To these must be added two live recordings under Toscanini. Conventional wisdom has it that the performance under Koussevitzky was the finest of the three "official" ones. I haven't the Beecham to hand but quite frankly the differences with the Munch are so great as to render quite meaningless the concept of a "best" version. Munch's Harold is bathed in the sort of softly glowing lights Berlioz's countryman and near-contemporary Corot found in Italy; furthermore Munch's climaxes have a euphoric blaze, a hedonistic splendour, which suggest a kinship between his own temperament and that of the composer. Koussevitzky's tighter control but slower tempi mean that Harold is surrounded by louring mountains and threatening skies. The most notable difference is in the second movement (Koussevitzky: 08:49, Munch: 06:40). Koussevitzky's pilgrims are a footsore if prayerful lot; Munch's sound weary but at the same time joyful, movingly aware that their goal is at last in sight. In view of this, and some fidgety tempo changes in the first movement from Koussevitzky, I must say my own preference would be for Munch, which obviously benefits from 1958 stereo, though if it's DDD sound you're after you will obviously want something much more recent still (the latest version under Sir Colin Davis, for example). That said, the Koussevitzky sounds remarkably good for its age and of course his alternative view is worth having.

A useful compilation of recordings by the first great modern violist."
-- Christopher Howell, MusicWeb International, July 2005

The other day the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, talking about his late wife Jacqueline du Pré, described her as the first British string soloist of any consequence. Yet the Englishman Lionel Tertis (1876-1975) is regarded by professionals all over the world as the father of modern viola playing; and those same experts would rate his characterful successor William Primrose as the finest violist of the twentieth century. This confident Scotsman travelled all over the world, as soloist and chamber musician, and played on equal terms with the greatest musicians of his time. He was also renowned as a teacher. Primrose campaigned for the viola with the zeal of a convert, as it was on the violin that he made his early reputation.

William Primrose was born on 23rd August 1904 in Glasgow, the son of John Primrose, orchestral violinist and violist and connoisseur of string playing and instruments - Willie (or Bill as he became known) used his father's 1735 Niccolo Gagliano in his early career. There was music on his mother's side, too: her brother Samuel Whiteside was a distinguished Glaswegian violinist who played several other instruments; but sadly he drowned when Willie was very young. The boy began violin lessons at four with Camillo Ritter, a pupil of Joachim, Halir and ≤evčík, and would have gone on to study with the latter, had it not been for World War I. He was playing in public at the age of twelve and was able to hear such musicians as Caruso, Destinn, Elman, Kreisler, Kubelík, Szigeti and Ysaÿe. With Sir Landon Ronald's help, when he was fifteen he entered the Guildhall School of Music in London, where he studied with the Dutch player Max Mossel, graduating in 1924 with the gold medal. Meanwhile he made his Queen's Hall début with Ronald conducting in June 1923, playing Lalo's Symphonie espagnole and Elgar's Concerto on the borrowed 'Betts' Strad. He also made his first records, including experimental (but unissued) HMV discs with sides lasting up to nine minutes.

Primrose gained most from Ysaÿe, with whom he spent several summers at Le Zoute from 1926, and it was the Belgian master who suggested he turn to the viola. On 30th May 1928 he played Mozart's Sinfonia concertante at a Mozart festival in Paris with the 52- year-old Tertis. This performance at the Grande Salle Pleyel, with the Lamoureux Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham, was the crucial event in Primrose's career (although subsequently he would skate over the Tertis connection, because of their basic disagreements on viola tone and vibrato, as well as the ideal size of the instrument). Primrose had always felt an affection for the viola but Tertis's huge, warm tone showed him its potential. In the Green Room afterwards, he told Tertis: 'I am a disciple of yours from henceforth'. By 1930 he was playing viola in the London String Quartet and by 1934 he was making solo viola records, starting with two Paganini Caprices. In 1935 he took part in the recording of Kreisler's A minor Quartet, led by the composer. On 5th November 1936 he made his Berlin Philharmonic début, playing Vaughan Williams's new Suite in a concert of British music conducted by Leo Borchard. He joined Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra in New York in 1937 as co-principal viola and for a few years organized the Primrose Quartet, with NBC colleagues Oscar Shumsky (later Henry Fuchs), Josef Gingold and Harvey Shapiro. In 1941 he took a chance and went solo, touring the United States with the tenor Richard Crooks. He recorded with Jascha Heifetz and Emanuel Feuermann, and in 1947 he appeared in London and at the first Edinburgh Festival with Schnabel, Szigeti and Fournier. He then had a long collaboration with Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky; and during the late 1950s and early 1960s he took part in the Festival Quartet, with the violinist Szymon Goldberg, cellist Nikolai Graudan and pianist Victor Babin. For one season he played in the Griller Quartet. Until a heart attack in 1963 forced him to curtail his activities, he was the undisputed king of viola concerto soloists. Among the works he inspired or commissioned were Britten's Lachrymae and the Bartók, Porter, Rubbra, Fricker and Milhaud (Second) Concertos. In private life he enjoyed billiards, cricket and swimming. He was made CBE in 1953. After a long illness he died in Provo, Utah, on 1st May 1982. Primrose taught at the universities of Southern California (1961-65) and Indiana (1965-72) and concentrated on teaching in his last years, when his health and hearing were impaired. He left much teaching material, such as the Yehudi Menuhin Music Guide to the Violin and Viola (1976) and Playing the Viola (1988). He wrote a readable autobiography, Walk on the North Side (1978).

Primrose was the first really modern violist. His technique was such that he could play virtually anything at sight - on a rare occasion when he was defeated, he worked all night at the piece and presented himself next morning, fully in command. His career can be seen as dividing into three periods, the violin phase, the first viola phase, lasting until just after World War II, in which he played his father's Brothers Amati with its warm, deep, tenor-ish sonority, and the second viola phase from 1954, when he switched to the slightly bigger but more alto-sounding 'Lord Harrington' Andrea Guarneri and was unduly influenced by Heifetz. The recordings on this CD were made in the interim between these viola phases, when he was experimenting with a 1945 instrument by William Moennig Jnr and had the use of the 'Macdonald' Strad, one of the few good violas by that maker, with its fine tone and instantly recognisable diagonal-figured back (it was later heard in the Amadeus Quartet, in the hands of Peter Schidlof). At this stage Primrose still had a tenororiented sound and could play in quite a lush style when he wished. Later he concentrated on dexterity: his playing remained colourful but his vibrato, always on the fast side for a violist, seemed more intense than ever and the tone more alto than tenor. Hence the divergence with Tertis, who favoured a deep tenor tone and a wide, Kreisleresque continuous vibrato.

The first concerto here was thought to be by Handel when Primrose made this, the second of his two recordings. It is, in fact, a modern forgery by Henri Casadesus (who also wrote a 'J.C. Bach' viola concerto). A jolly piece, it displayed Primrose's easy articulation and rhythmic flair, and he always made an effect with it in concert. Two years before this New York session, he toured Britain and played the 'Handel' in Bournemouth, where the fifteen-year-old violinist James Durrant was in the audience. 'When I heard Primrose, that was it,' recalled Durrant, who immediately took up the viola and later moved to Glasgow to become Scotland's foremost violist of the late twentieth century. In the Victor studio Frieder Weissmann, a German émigré best remembered for marrying the soprano Meta Seinemeyer on her deathbed, does not quite match the vigour of Walter Goehr on Primrose's earlier Columbia version, but the orchestral playing is more polished and the soloist's tone is shown to better effect. Primrose plays the slow movement most eloquently. To the Walton, earliest and best of the composer's three concertos, Primrose brought a new dimension of virtuosity. Walton had made a still unsurpassed recording with Frederick Riddle eight years earlier but could not raise his own rather moderate game to that of his 1946 soloist. Still, the performance has many marvellous moments, not least from the Philharmonia wind soloists, and Walton does better than Beecham, who during Primrose's first airing of the Concerto, for the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1936, got lost in the central scherzo. 'Well, at least we finished together, dear boy,' was all Sir Thomas had to say. Finally we have Berlioz's Harold in Italy, which Primrose recorded twice live with Toscanini and in the studio with Beecham and Munch. This version with Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony was well rehearsed, as it was made after a short tour; and the violist was using the 'Macdonald' Strad. Primrose the perfectionist was unhappy with the conductor's tempo changes, such as the accelerando before the viola's first entry; but most aficionados find the interpretation riveting. The orchestra, still full of French players at that time, plays beautifully, Koussevitzky's conducting is exciting and the sound achieved by the engineers has tremendous depth for its era.

- Tully Potter