William Primrose
William Primrose ( born August 23, 1904 in Glasgow, † May 1, 1982 in Provo, Utah ) 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 as a four year old with learning of violin playing. 1919 twisted his family to London, where he attended the Guildhall School of Music, where he continued to receive violin lessons with Max Mossel. After completing his studies in 1924 he traveled to Brussels in order to deepen his knowledge in Eugène Ysaÿe. This convinced him to study intensive Viola, whose sonorous sound Primrose already enthused longer.
In 1930, he was the violist of the " London String Quartet". With this quartet, he toured North and South America until its dissolution due to financial reasons in 1935. Starting from 1937, he played as an orchestral musician on the NBC Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini. With the orchestra he has had numerous solo performances. In addition to the orchestral work he founded the " Primrose String Quartet".
1941 Primrose left the NBC Orchestra. In New York he met the tenor Richard Crooks, the Primrose encouraged to accompany him on his tours. This was the beginning of Primroses solo career. In the postwar years he has performed as a soloist with the most prestigious European and North American orchestras under famous conductors of the time, such as John Barbirolli, Sir Thomas Beecham, Charles Münch, Arturo Toscanini, Wilhelm Furtwängler and others.
In addition to this solo career Primrose not neglected his chamber music activities. This allowed him to work with the best musicians he had already revered as a student. In addition to his involvement in the " London String Quartet" and " Primrose Quartet", he was a member of the " Festival Piano Quartet ," the beak Szigeti Primrose Piano Quartet -Fournier and the Heifetz - Primrose - fire man trio.
The teaching took an important place in his life, so he taught 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 was " 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 has given master classes at the Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music. He also held in the summer master classes, such as in Toronto, Montreal, Geneva, Banff, Santa Barbara and Aspen.
Primrose played an Amati viola, which he had inherited from his father, and a viola by Andrea Guarneri, now under the name " ex Primrose " known.
In 1953 he was appointed " Commander of the Order of the British Empire".
Dedicated works to him
- Concerto for Viola and Orchestra Op.post. of Béla Bartók.
- Concerto for Viola, Piano, Winds and Percussion by Karl Amadeus Hartmann.
- Concerto for Viola by Quincy Porter.
- " Lachrymae " for Viola and String Orchestra by Benjamin Britten.
Publications
Primrose published four pedagogical works for his instrument.
- Art and Practice of Scale Playing ( Mills, 1954)
- Technique Is memory (Oxford University Press, 1960)
- Violon and Viola (jointly with Yehudi Menuhin and Stevens; Schirmer, 1976)
- Playing the Viola ( Oxford University Press, 1988)
- An autobiography: " Walk on the north side: Memoirs of a violist " 1972