By 1920 John McCormack had already, probably wisely, abandoned
his operatic career as long ago as 1913 in order to preserve
his light voice and concentrate on concert recitals. He retained
a few operatic items such the celebrated account here of “O
Sleep!”. However, for the most part he sang a judicious mixture
of traditional and popular ballads, hymns, art songs and Lieder,
all of which are represented here. The bulk of them would come
under the category of what McCormack ironically and defensively
referred to as “muck” when defending himself against high-brow
critics who alluded slightingly to his populist repertoire.
It has to be said that even the most dedicated admirer of McCormack’s
silvery, liquid tenor might tire after nearly eighty minutes
of a programme featuring a preponderance of what some might
call the slightest of ditties. They are elevated by the unearthly
beauty of his singing and the sincere, yet roguish, charm of
his brogue. I can never hear either the Irish songs or even
the Handel aria sung by anyone else without bringing to mind
the peculiar purity of McCormack’s pronunciation of “your” as
“yoor”. Nor, for that matter, can anyone else sing “My wandering
love” as McCormack does here, with its effortless, unearthly
floated melismata over six, extended, four- beat measures. He
then complements that vocal feat with a perfectly poised concluding,
A-flat on “restore”. You have no time to recover from that before,
in track three, you hear another example of McCormack’s consummate
art in his elegantly restrained account of Schumann’s “The Singer’s
Consolation”. I would argue that this recital is worth the money
for those tracks alone. There is undoubtedly something of a
wrench when we segue from “the brown little lad with a freckled
nose” (“nawse” to rhyme with “rawse”) in track 1 to the Handel,
the Schumann and then back to “The Next Market Day” complete
with authentic “Oirish” accent. It’s the same voice with the
same pellucid diction and the same plangent delicacy of tone.
For all that much of this disc is dedicated to sentimental ballads,
in addition to the Handel and Schumann we have three passionate,
soulful Rachmaninov songs. In two of these, McCormack is partnered
by the sweet-toned Fritz Kreisler who provides a haunting violin
obbligato. All the singing here is stellar: time and again,
the tenor’s vocalism is a thing of wonder. The pianissimo concluding
B-flat in “Since You Went Away” or the floated As in his signature-tune
“I Hear You Calling Me” are both simply breathtaking. It is
too easy from our modern perspective to deride the sentimentality
of “In that dear little town in the ould County Down” or “Mother
in Ireland” but our own popular culture is hardly innocent of
mawkishness and McCormack knew his market. To provide some dignity
and balance, we have a couple of overtly pious hymns grandly
sung to stately tunes and Sullivan’s famous “The Lost Chord”,
de rigueur for all singers of any note of that era,
including Caruso and Dame Clara Butt; McCormack need not fear
comparison with their very different versions.
The transfers by Ward Marston are exemplary; the sound gives
rise to no listening fatigue . As usual, no texts are provided
but such is the clarity of McCormack’s diction you don’t need
them. There is a long and informative essay by John Scarry.
I would suggest avoiding both auditory indigestion and saccharine
overload by dipping into and sampling this compilation: it contains
gems sung by a voice which for sheer quality in its category
can only be spoken of in the same breath as Schipa, Vinogradov
and Wunderlich.
Ralph Moore
Reviews
of other McCormack Edition releases
Track listing
WIGGERS The Barefoot Trail [2:46]
HANDEL Semele: O Sleep!
Why Dost Thou Leave Me? [3:25]
SCHUMANN The Singer’s Consolation
[2:19]
TRAD arr. HUGHES The Next Market
Day [1:07]
TRAD arr. HUGHES A Ballynure
Ballad [1:31]
RACHMANINOV When Night Descends
and [3:00]
RACHMANINOV O Cease Thy Singing,
Maiden Fair [3:36]
KRAMER The Last Hour [2:44]
JOHNSON Since You Went Away
[2:51]
MARSHALL I Hear You Calling
Me [3:40]
HIRSCH The O’Brien Girl:
Learn to Smile [3:20]
SANDERS Little Town in the Ould
County Down [3:26]
ROBLEDO Three O’Clock in the
Morning [2:54]
KAHN & LYMAN Mother in Ireland
[3:10]
SIMONS Her Family Tree:
Remember the Rose [2:48]
SULLIVAN The Lost Chord [4:16]
BARNBY Jesus, My Lord, My God,
My All [3:08]
NICHOLLS The Kingdom Within
Your Eyes [2:39]
MERIKANTO A Fairy Story By The
Fire [2:12]
RACHMANINOV To the Children
[3:12]
WHITEMAN & GROFÉ Wonderful
One [2:34]
OPENSHAW Love Sends a Little
Gift of Roses [2:43]
AYER Where the Rainbow Ends
[3:08]
AYER Somewhere in the World
[2:59]
LOOKWOOD Take a Look at Molly
[2:42]
SQUIRE Dream Once Again [2:48]
DICKSON Thanks be to God [2:25]
John McCormack (tenor)