Firkušný and Primrose Play Brahms
William Primrose (violist)
Rudolf Firkušný (pianist)
rec. 1958 (viola sonatas) and 1959 (solo piano works), New York City
Pristine Audio PACM 129 [76]

I imprinted on the Primrose/Firkušný Brahms viola sonatas as a teenager and still find them to be the ideal performances of both sonatas. Many violists tend to audibly gravitate towards the dramatic F Minor or the sunny E-flat Major, but Primrose handles both with aplomb. The Scottish-American violist leads the way in the first movement of the craggy first sonata, which crackles with energy. His theatrical use of a wide variety of tonal colors is noticeable from the first page. He allows his sound to go “white,” senza vibrato, and in the next phrase switches his left hand on in all its violinistic glory. I miss the old-school harmonics that Primrose smacks onto several notes near the end of the final movement in his previous recording with William Kapell; they are sadly absent here. For his part, Firkušný’s playing comes across as less frenetic than that of Primrose, but he is a musically solid partner. His round tone and wide dynamic range perfectly suits the music, and he seems to find some of the repose that Kapell lacks in the earlier recording with Primrose. (For the record, I love the Primrose/Kapell recording, but the feverish intensity of the performance somehow seems a bit much for the music.) Listening carefully to Primrose/Firkušný, it becomes evident that violist and pianist are not always on the same page when it comes to their tempi; Primrose will slow down, playing slightly behind Firkušný, and in the next phrase the violist will push ahead, leaving the Czech pianist to catch up. The resulting tension comes across just as that, musical tension, rather than just sloppy ensemble. (We are talking about split-second imprecisions, rather than significant ensemble problems that one might hear in a sloppy performance.) 

The E-flat Major Sonata finds the violist channeling his friend Fritz Kreisler’s luscious tone; if the Austrian violinist had left behind any viola records, they likely would have sounded much like this. Throughout the sonata, one can hear Kreisler’s musical fingerprints, most identifiably his trademark portamenti that Primrose happily sprinkles in every movement.

Although the affect of the performance is very relaxed, it runs roughly a minute faster than Primrose’s earlier version recorded with the English pianist Gerald Moore. This may come down to Firkušný’s contribution. The pianist handles the nasty figurations in the first and second movements with ease, and he tends to move the “tutti” passages along whenever he can. (Moore struggles with the octave leaps, though to be fair to him, he was recording on 78rpm records without the option to edit, and those leaps are really nasty!) 

In both sonatas, we hear some small slips in intonation, perhaps hinting at the severe hearing loss that would afflict Primrose in his later years, but the majority of both sonatas are just fine, intonation-wise. Overall, I cannot recommend these two recordings highly enough. 

We are in chancier territory with Firkušný’s solo Brahms. I find it to be elegantly played, but rather po-faced. The G Minor Rhapsody that opens the solo items is played at a good clip, the pianist voices very carefully (a major hurdle in this piece), but there is something missing. It may be the element of struggle; the piece is an awkward one for the performer, with numerous hand crossings and some left-hand octave jumps that I’ve heard trip up several professional pianists, but for Firkušný it’s child’s play. In music by a composer like Chopin, this wouldn’t matter, but for my taste, there is an element in Brahms’s keyboard music of effort that, if smoothed over, removes an important facet of the German composer’s musical personality. The Czech pianist is on more solid ground in the op. 117 no. 2, which is more about color and melodic line, and in op. 76 no. 3, where he achieves lovely bell-like effects, but when we get to op. 76 no. 1 and the monumental op. 118 no. 6, there is again something that is not adding up. Ultimately, listeners should sample the solo items if they can and decide if this Brahms is to their liking.

Pristine’s beautiful (as usual) transfers were effected by Andrew Rose. 

Richard Masters

Contents
Johannes Brahms (1833-1899)
Viola Sonata no. 1 in F Minor, op. 120 no. 1
Viola Sonata no. 2 in E-flat Major, op. 120 no. 2
Rhapsody in G Minor, op. 79 no. 2
Intermezzo in G-flat Minor, op. 117, no. 2
Capriccio in F-sharp Minor, op. 76 no. 1
Intermezzo in A-flat Major, op. 76 no. 3
Capriccio in D Minor, op. 116 no. 1
Intermezzo in E-flat Minor, op. 118 no. 6
Four Klavierstücke, op. 119