William Primrose

Known for his rich tone and expressive phrasing, Scottish violist William Primrose championed contemporary works by commissioning numerous important pieces for the viola. Born in Glasgow on August 23, 1904, to John and Margaret-McInnis Primrose, he grew up alongside two younger siblings. Violin instruction began for him in 1908 under Camillo Ritter, a one-time pupil of both Joseph Joachim and Otakar Sevcik. At age twelve he made his first public appearance as a violinist, performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto at St. Andrew’s Hall in Glasgow. In 1919 the family relocated to London, where he enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music and completed his studies with honors in 1924, though he later acknowledged that the curriculum lacked rigor and that he had never exerted himself fully.

Two years afterward, prompted by his friend and accompanist Ivor Newton, Primrose traveled to Belgium to work with Eugène Ysaÿe. Having long favored the viola’s darker timbre, he had been required by his father to concentrate on the violin; once Ysaÿe learned of this preference, he urged his pupil to switch instruments. The shift, together with Ysaÿe’s guidance, brought Primrose’s playing to a heightened plane of refinement and musicality.

His professional viola career opened in 1930 when he joined the London String Quartet, remaining with the ensemble through extensive tours until its dissolution in 1935 amid the economic strains of the Great Depression. In 1937 he entered the newly established NBC Symphony under Arturo Toscanini; although he never served as principal violist, he spent four seasons with the orchestra and founded the Primrose Quartet in 1939. He maintained a demanding schedule of rehearsals and concerts until departing in 1941 to launch a solo career. Tours alongside Richard Crooks took him across Europe and the Americas, and beginning in 1943 he worked with concert manager Arthur Judson, appearing with many of the era’s foremost conductors and orchestras. Chamber-music partnerships included the Heifetz/Primrose/Feuermann Trio and the Schnabel/Szigeti/Primrose/Fournier Piano Quartet.

Several composers wrote expressly for him, among them Milhaud, Britten, Rubbra, and Bartók, whose commissioned viola concerto remains one of the most celebrated. A hearing difficulty that surfaced in 1946 gradually deprived him of accurate pitch perception, yet he continued touring and recording throughout the 1950s. He established the Aspen Music Festival Quartet in 1954 and took part in the Heifetz-Piatigorsky chamber-music series. Progressive hearing loss and a heart attack in 1963 prompted him to redirect his energies toward teaching.

His first academic post began two years later at Indiana University; in 1972 he joined the faculty of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and became affiliated with additional Japanese institutions, notably the Toho Gakuen School and the Suzuki Institute in Matsumoto. During the late 1970s he prepared editions and arrangements for viola and issued his memoirs, Walk on the North Side. From 1979 until his death in 1982 he taught at Brigham Young University, where he founded the William Primrose International Viola Archive inside the Harold B. Lee Library.