There have been tribute discs to William Primrose and to Lionel
Tertis, but I’m not sure that there has ever been a joint
salute to the Anglo-Scottish pairing before. Interleaving transcriptions
by the two greatest violists of the twentieth century makes
for engaging programming and Schotten, who is a Primrose student,
has cannily selected items for good contrastive and expressive
reasons.
In fact throughout the disc he alternates transcriptions by
both men, starting with Primrose’s Haydn arrangement and
ending with Tertis’s famous transcription of Kreisler’s
Praeludium and Allegro. In most cases the transcribers themselves
left behind recorded examples, so we can, if we wish, listen
both to the transcriber himself and to a contemporary performer
such as Schotten who is influenced most especially, naturally,
by Primrose.
Contrasting performances between Schotten and his eminent predecessors
is always a tendentious business as it’s up to younger
generations to stamp their own mark on transcriptions, if they
are any good, and have lasting value. To say that Schotten doesn’t
play these pieces like Primrose or Tertis is merely to say that
he plays them like Schotten, which is as it should be. Nevertheless
I will indicate a few markers to show what he does, and how
he plays these generally highly effective transcriptions, ones
that have furnished violists with a good range of recital repertory
for over four generations now.
According to Tully Potter’s notes, Primrose only recorded
the Allegro di molto finale of the Haydn, but I think he recorded
the opening Adagio as well in 1947. Schotten plays well here,
but lacks Primrose’s witty rubati. Tertis takes the viola
high in Liebesträume but Schotten copes well, though without
his model’s deep richness of tone. Primrose’s brilliance
and clarity of articulation are what sets him apart from other
violists in the C.P.E. Bach Solfeggietto - his 1939 Victor recording
with Joseph Kahn is an amazing example of just these qualities.
Primrose recorded J.S. Bach’s Komm Süsser Tod, but
not, I think, this Tertis arrangement. Of the Paganini, all
that needs to be said is that when Mischa Elman heard Primrose
plays these transcriptions, he is alleged to have muttered;
‘Huh, must be easier on the viola.’
I like the way Schott plays the Fauré transcriptions,
especially Après un rêve, which I always
feel Tertis plays a touch too quickly, on both his recordings.
Schott gets it just right. Unlike Tertis he can stretch out
in the Schubert Nacht und Träume and the results
are very different. Tertis’ recording was on a 10”
so he had to hurry. Schott plays the Allegro from Boccherini’s
Sonata in A elegantly but without Primrose’s mobile and
noble eloquence in his 1939 Victor, again with Kahn. It’s
good to hear the two Arthur Benjamin transcriptions, though
they’re often enough done by violists. I’ve got
a feeling Schotten has listened to Tertis’s 1922 recording
of the Grieg song, Jeg elsker Dig (Ich Liebe Dich) as
the tempo and phrasing are very sympathetic to the original.
The following year Tertis recorded Grieg’s Third Violin
Sonata in his viola arrangement. Schott espouses nice echo effects
in La Chasse, one of Tertis’ favourites amongst his own
recordings - and where he was placed a bit further back from
the recording horn than in the Grieg, to advantage. I’ve
never heard Primrose’s recording of the Praeludium and
Allegro but I’ve heard both of the transcriber’s,
Tertis. Schotten plays well but needs a bit more panache.
This is a well-judged and executed dual tribute, finely recorded
and annotated.
Jonathan Woolf
Track listing
Arrangements alternately by Primrose and Tertis
Josef HAYDN (1732-1809)
Allegro from Divertimento in D [1:51]
Franz LISZT (1811-1886)
Liebesträume No.3 [3:45]
C.P.E. BACH (1714-1788)
Solfeggietto [1:03]
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Komm Süsser Tod [2:43]
Nicoló PAGANINI (1782-1840)
Caprices Op.1; 5 [1:40] and 13 [2:39]
Gabriel FAURÉ (1845-1924)
Après un rêve [2:57]
Jean-Philippe RAMEAU (1683-1764)
Tambourin en rondeau [2:04]
Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
Auf Flügeln des Gesanges [2:42]
May Breezes (Songs without Words) [2:26]
Luigi BOCCHERINI (1743-1805)
Allegro from Sonata No. 6 in A [4:05]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Nacht und Träume [4:31]
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Minnelied [2:54]
Arthur BENJAMIN (1893-1960)
From San Domingo [2:38]
Jamaican Rumba [1:43]
Edvard GRIEG (1843-1907)
Jeg elsker Dig (Ich Liebe Dich) [2:57]
Fritz KREISLER (1875-1962)
La Chasse [1:46]
Praeludium and Allegro [4:58]
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)
The Swan (Carnival of the Animals) [2:41]
Yizhak Schotten (viola) 
