Biddulph’s Uneven Survey of Primrose

from the Amazon.com Web page for the recording being discussed

According to its Wikipedia page, Biddulph Recordings was declared by Musical America to be “the best historical CD label in the world.” The organization was founded in 1989, and that undated quote may have been valid during at least the first half of the final decade of the twentieth century. However, there was a significant sea change during the second half of that decade, which saw the first signs of complete anthologies based on the historically significant archives dating back to the earliest recording sessions provided by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). (As some readers may recall, those sessions involved not only soloists but also orchestras led by conductor Arturo Toscanini.)

That “sea change” led to complete anthologies of violinist Jascha Heifetz, pianist William Kapell, and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. Even though there are overlaps among these three collections, I still value all of them equally enthusiastically. The one major RCA artist of the twentieth century that has not yet been anthologized is the violist William Primrose, who makes significant appearances in all three of those previously released anthologies. So it was that, this past November, I first became aware of Biddulph Recordings and decided to sample its treatment of Primrose through its recently released three-CD set entitled William Primrose: Critics’ Choices for Viola.

My initial reaction was one of wondering just who those critics were and why they made the choices they did. The booklet essay by Tully Potter did not address this issue; and no information was provided by Eric Wen, who produced the album. There were three overlaps with the RCA anthologies:

1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 424 duo in B-flat major performed with Heifetz
2. Ernst von Dohnányi C major serenade performed with Heifetz and cellist Emanuel Feuermann
3. The viola version of the first of Johannes Brahms’ Opus 120 sonatas (originally composed for clarinet) in F minor with pianist Kapell

In all three of these cases the remastering by Mark Obert-Thorn was neither better or worse than the tracks in those earlier anthologies.

The remainder of the Biddulph collection is, at best, uneven. Several of the earlier offerings involve mistaken attributions and arrangements of variable quality. These occurred frequently when the recording industry was still coming up to speed; but it is hard to imagine the pastiche by Henri Casadesus, which he called a “Handel” concerto, being on any critic’s list of choices. Far more significant are the recordings of two twentieth-century sonatas, one by Arnold Bax in G major and the other by Paul Hindemith in F major, the fourth composition in his Opus 11 collection. Also of interest is that the offering of two short movements by Roy Harris entitled “Soliloquy” and “Dance” was performed by Primrose accompanied by Harris’ wife Johana (whom I had the good fortune to know when I was living in Los Angeles in the Eighties). The other major treasure in this collection is the performance of Brahms’ Opus 91, the so-called “alto songs,” featuring contralto Marian Anderson.

Nevertheless, as much as I wish to learn more about Primrose’s recording legacy, I would prefer to wait patiently until Sony decides to release a complete anthology of his RCA and Columbia recordings.