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Price: sold |
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NEAR MINT CONDITION |
WILLIAM PRIMROSE & ERIC COATES |
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Two British violists write two early musical quotations on 3.25” x 5.5” album leaf at two consecutive Eastbourne Festivals, 1925 and 1926. William Primrose writes the first 4 bars of Wolfgang Amadeus’s 3rd violin concerto in G major, November 17, 1925. Eric Coates writes two bars of his then brand new piece, “The Three Bears Fantasy for Orchestra”, November 15, 1926. We offer with a vintage glossy press photograph of Primrose dated 1952. Primrose (1904 - 1982) was the product of a violinist father. He studied with Camillo Ritter and at the Guildhall School from 1919 to 1924 winning top honors. He made his debut in 1916 and began his professional career as a concert violinist in 1924. Apparently the instrument bored him. In 1926 at the urging of his accompanist, Ivor Newton, Primrose moved to Belgium to study with Eugene Ysa˙e where he remained until 1929. It was Ysa˙e who encouraged him to play the viola, an instrument his father had forbidden. Primrose went on to become the greatest violist of the 20th Century. Coates (1886-1957) was also a violist by training. He was sent to study viola with Lionel Tertis at the Royal Academy of Music in 1906. Whilst there he also studied composition with composer Frank Corder. Tertis in 1908 decided not to tour with the Hambourg Quartet and suggested Coates and that was the end of his formal training. The violist also found orchestral work playing with Sir Thomas Beecham’s Orchestra and Sir Henry Wood’s Queen’s Hall Orchestra. He also played during this time with the Cathie and Walen Quartets. On the side, Coates was composing, conducting and found a niche in lighter classical music and songs. His songs and other compositions became so successful that he put down the viola in 1919 to concentrate on composing with occasional conducting appearances. He and his wife welcomed a son in 1922 and he was inspired by the stories she would read to him at night. He then wrote three “phantasies” for orchestra over a period of a few years. The first was “The Selfish Giant” in 1925. In 1926 for his son’s fourth birthday he wrote “The Three Bears Phantasy for Orchestra”. The last in 1930 was based on the story of “Cinderella” in 1930. “The Three Bears” is a 10 minute work which is at times compared by musicologists to Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” for it’s jazz harmonics. Coates himself conducted the first recording in 1926 which can be heard on YouTube. An interesting dichotomy of two violists early in their respective careers. Perfect for framed display!
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Phone: 212-860-5541
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