[4] That same year, his father arranged violin lessons with Camillo Ritter, who had studied with Joseph Joachim and Otakar Ševčík.

[3] During his childhood, Primrose also enjoyed reading and playing chess in addition to studying music and performing.

[6] Primrose graduated in 1924, having received its highest honor, a gold medal, although he admitted that he skipped some of his classes because the violin did not interest him.

[3] On the urging of the accompanist Ivor Newton, Primrose moved to Belgium to study under Eugène Ysaÿe[3] from 1926 to 1929.

They toured throughout North and South America in the 1930s; however, due to financial pressures of the Great Depression, they disbanded in 1935.

After the disbandment of the London String Quartet, Primrose took a variety of jobs; he performed in Berlin, at La Scala in Milan, and a number of concerts in England.

The other players (all with the NBC Orchestra at the time) were Oscar Shumsky, Josef Gingold and Harvey Shapiro.

[8] While performing with the NBC Symphony, Primrose also made recordings with Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky.

[3] In 1944, he was the soloist in the first studio recording of Berlioz's Harold in Italy with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Serge Koussevitzky.

[12]Primrose was the soloist in the world premiere performance of the concerto in America, on 2 December 1949, with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra and Antal Doráti conducting.

[13]He gave the European premiere at the Edinburgh Festival in 1950 with Sir John Barbirolli and The Hallé orchestra.

Primrose wrote many transcriptions and arrangements for viola, often technically dazzling, including "La Campanella" (from Paganini's second violin concerto) and the famous Nocturne from Borodin's second string quartet, the latter "out of jealousy" for the cello's long melodic lines.

[3][4] Some of his notable students include Canadian violinist Albert Pratz,[19] former principal of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Alan de Veritch,[20] the American composer David Campbell,[21] and Olympic Music Festival founder and violist Alan Iglitzin.

[22] Other notable pupils include, Martha Strongin Katz, Karen Tuttle, Joseph de Pasquale and Cynthia Phelps.

Prior to the recording, the viola was inspected and was found to have had adjustments of questionable workmanship, which were subsequently repaired.

It was then sold in 1978 to Ulrich Fritze,[29] who played the viola during his 30-year tenure as principal violist of the Berlin Philharmonic.