William Primrose

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Primrose

William Primrose (born August 23, 1904 in Glasgow , † May 1, 1982 in Provo ) was a Scottish violist and viola teacher, he was considered one of the pioneers of this instrument in the 20th century.

Life

William Primrose began learning to play the violin with Camillo Ritter at the age of four . In 1919 the family moved to London, where he attended the Guildhall School of Music , where he continued to take violin lessons from Max Mossel . After completing his studies in 1924, he traveled to Brussels to improve his skills with Eugène Ysaÿe . This convinced him to study the viola more intensively, the sonorous sound of which Primrose had been enthusiastic about for a long time.

In 1930 he became a violist with the London String Quartet. With this quartet he toured North and South America until its dissolution for financial reasons in 1935. From 1937 he played as an orchestral musician in the NBC orchestra under Arturo Toscanini . He had numerous solo appearances with the orchestra. In addition to his orchestral work, he founded the Primrose String Quartet.

In 1941 Primrose left the NBC orchestra. In New York he met the tenor Richard Crooks , who suggested Primrose to accompany him on his tours. This was the beginning of Primrose's solo career. In the post-war years he performed as a soloist with the most famous European and North American orchestras under the most famous conductors of the time such as John Barbirolli , Thomas Beecham , Charles Münch , Arturo Toscanini , Wilhelm Furtwängler and others.

In addition to this solo activity, Primrose did not neglect his chamber music activity. This enabled him to work with the best musicians he had already admired as a student. In addition to his engagement in the London String Quartet and the Primrose Quartet, he was a member of the Festival Piano Quartet, the Schnabel - Szigeti -Primrose- Fournier Piano Quartet and the Heifetz -Primrose- Feuermann Trio.

Teaching took an important place in his life, so he taught at a very young age at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, from 1961 to 1965 at the University of Southern California and at Indiana University . In 1971 he became artist in residence at the University of Arts and Music in Tokyo and at the Toho Gakuen School of Music , also in Tokyo. Occasionally he gave master classes at the Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music . He also held master classes in the summer, for example in Toronto, Montréal, Geneva, Banff, Santa Barbara and Aspen.

Primrose played an Amati viola inherited from his father and an Andrea Guarneri viola . He acquired this instrument in 1954. It is now known under the name " ex Primrose " and is one of only three known violas in the Guarnieri family of violins .

In 1953 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire .

Works dedicated to him

Publications

Primrose published four educational works for his instrument:

  • Art and Practice of Scale Playing (Mills, 1954)
  • Technique Is Memory (Oxford University Press, 1960)
  • Violin and Viola (together with Yehudi Menuhin and Denis Stevens, Schirmer, 1976)
  • Playing the Viola (Oxford University Press, 1988)

Autobiography:

  • Walk on the north side: Memoirs of a violist (1972)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ William Primrose (b1904; D1982), Scottish, Violist. (No longer available online.) Cozio.com, archived from the original on April 8, 2014 ; Retrieved April 17, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Primrose, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British violist and teacher
DATE OF BIRTH August 23, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1982
Place of death Provo