This clisc presents the incornparahle viola virtuoso William Primrose in recital. In a career of more than half a century, this great British-born player gave literally thousands of such performances, often to audiences who had never before heard the viola in a solo role. Our programme starts with the two most popular sonatas in the repertoire, continues with two fine works written for Primrose and ends with Fritz Kreisler's best composition, originally for violin. It was on the violin that Primrose made his early reputation. He was born cm 23 August 190 in Glasgow, the son of John Primrose, an orchestral violinist and violist and a connoisseur of string playing and instruments – Bill Used his father's 1735 Niccolo Gagliano in his early career. There was music on his mother's side of the family, too: her brother Samuel Whiteside was a distinguished Glaswegian violinist who played several other instruments; but sadly he was drowned when Bill was still very young. The lad began violin lessons at four with Camillo Bitter, a pupil of Joachim and Sevcik, and would have gone on to study with the latter, had it not been for World War I. He was playing in public at 12 and, with Sir Landon Ronald's help, was at the Guildhall School in London by the age of 15. He studied there with Max Mossel and oracle his Queen's Hall debut with Ronald conducting in June 1923, playing Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole and Elgar's Concerto, on the borrowed `Betts' Strad. But he gained most from Ysaye, with whom he spent several summers from 1926; and it was the Belgian master who first suggested that he might turn to the viola. Had Ysaye heard something alto-ish in the young man's tone, or was he hoping to revive his Quartet with Primrose as its violist? Primrose himself was never quite sure; but in 1928 he played Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in Paris with Lionel Tertis and this was the crucial event in his career - although he subsequently tended to skate over the Tertis connection, perhaps because of their basic disagreements on the vexed questions of viola tone and vibrato, as well as the ideal size of the instrument. Primrose had always had a soft spot for the viola but Tertis's huge, warm tone showed him the real possibilities of the instrument. By 1930 he was playing the viola in the London String Quartet and by 1935 he was making viola records. He joined Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra in New York as co-principal viola in 1937 and went solo in 1941, touring with the lyric tenor Richard Crooks. For a few years he organised the Primrose Quartet (with Oscar Shurnsky, Josef Gingold and Harvey Shapiro). He had a long collaboration with Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky; and during the late 1950s and early 1960s he took part in the magnificent Festival Quartet (with Szymon Goldberg, violin, Nikolai Graudan, cello, and Victor Babin, piano). Among the works he inspired or commissioned were Britten's Lachrymae and the Bartok, Rubbra, Fricker and Milhaud (Second) Concertos. In private life he enjoyed billiards, cricket and swimming. After a long illness he died in Provo, Utah, on 1 May 1982. Primrose's career fell into three periods, corresponding with his choice of instrument: the violin phase; the first viola phase, lasting until just after World War 11, in which he played his father's Brothers Amati with its warm, deep, tenor-ish sonority; and the second viola phase, when he switched to a slightly bigger but more alto-sounding Andrea Guarneri and was unduly influenced by Heifetz. The earlier of the Brahms recordings on this CD was made on the Amati and the other performances date from the experimental period between the viola phases, when he was often using a modern instrument by William Moennig and also had access to the 'Macdonald' Strad, with its wonderful tone and instantly recognisable diagonal-grained back (later this instrument would be heard in the Amadeus Quartet, in the hands of Peter Schidlof). At this stage Primrose still had a tenororientated tone and could play in quite a lush style when he and a mind to. Later he tended to concentrate 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 of opinion with Tertis, who favoured a deep tenor tone and a wide, Kreisleresque continuous vibrato. The Brahms sonatas, transcribed by the composer himself from clarinet originals, have become associated even more with the viola than the clarinet, thanks to the advocacy of players like Primrose. He recorded somewhat fleeter interpretations with Rudolf Firkusny in the LP era but the 78 rpm versions are wonderfully autumnal in the true late Brahmsian manner. The F minor Sonata is notable for being among the few records made by the brilliant American pianist William Kapell (1922-1953)`, who perished in an air crash; in 1939 Primrose had recorded the work for Victor with the distinguished Puerto Rican pianist Jesus Maria Sanroma but that version had not been issued. A recent limited edition of the Sanroma performance has revealed that there are many beautiful moments in it- but the Kapell version has more overall cohesion. In the F flat Sonata, Gerald Moore's deep purple piano sound is well captured by the HMV engineers, as is the tone of the Amati. Primrose enjoyed playing short pieces like Jamaican Rumba by the Australian-born Arthur Benjamin; and when he asked for a work from Benjamin he was rewarded with a splendid triptych for viola and orchestra, ideal for slotting into a recital in its piano-accompanied form. He had similar luck when he got to know the American composer Roy Harris in 1938, receiving a suite and the piece recorded here (though neither was dedicated to him). Both the Benjamin and Harris performances (issued together on 78 rpm discs) are definitive - the latter has the additional attraction of featuring the composer's wife Johana, a committed interpreter of her husband's music and an occasional recital partner to Primrose. The Kreisler piece was originally passed off by its composer as a rediscovered work by Gaetano Pugnani and in that guise was recorded by Tertis (though never by Kreisler himself). By the time Primrose made his record, the cat was out of the bag. The Praeludium has one or two uncharacteristic intonation slips and one assumes Primrose chose this `take' because he played the Allegro so brilliantly. His bowing here would be a tour de force on the violin, let alone on the more unwieldy viola. TULLY POTTER