CCMusic.com

This CD features recordings by the great Scots-born violist William Primrose. The recordings were made between 1939-42, which most people regard were Primrose's prime years. This was the period in which he collaborated in many chamber music recordings with Heifetz and Feuermann, and also founded the Primrose String Quartet, with Oscar Shumsky and Josef Gingold and Harvey Shapiro. Especially notable about this CD release is that it features 14 previously unissued recordings. Among the works that are new to the Primrose discography are Handel's popular Sonata in A, as well as such favorites as Schubert's Ave Maria, Schumann's Warum? and Debussy's Girl with the Flaxen Hair. Also included are numerous original compositions and transcriptions by Fritz Kreisler, Primrose's idol. This CD ends with the first commercial release of two well-known English salon pieces: Cyril Scott's Cherry Ripe and Frederick Delius's famous Serenade from the incidental music to Hassan. Also of particular interest on this album is a recording of Paganini's Caprice No.13, with Earl Wild providing an improvised accompaniment. This recording is mono, recorded at the RCA Studios in Manhattan.