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The McCormack Edition Volume 6:
1915-16 Acoustic Recordings see end of review for track listing
John McCormack
(tenor), Emil Keneke (trumpet (1, 25), Fritz Kreisler (violin)
(10-13), Male Chorus (7, 8), Ludwig Schwab
(piano) (12, 13), Orchestra/Walter B. Rogers (all except
12, 13)
rec. Victor Talking Machine Company, Camden, NJ, 30 March
1915 – 9 May 1916
Audio Restoration: Ward Marston NAXOS HISTORICAL
8.111316 [78:17]
Listening to John McCormack’s recordings chronologically takes
a great deal of will-power. So much of his repertoire was made
up
of sentimental songs and ballads of a kind that makes at
least this listener wish for something more substantial once
in a while. It is true that good singing and expressive delivery
can make even the most banal song seem better than it really
is. Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra were such singers and
McCormack also had the ability to ennoble his material through
his golden tone and power of insight. And even though there
may be songs one doesn’t exactly long to hear again for the
musical quality there are still things to admire from the
point of view of pure singing: the perfect line, the excellent
diction or the sensitive turn of a phrase. Even though to
a certain extent he uses portamento when moving from one
note to the next he does it so discreetly that he never sentimentalises
an already sentimental song. That he sometimes expresses
sentimental feelings is another matter and that is also one
of the secrets of his great popularity.
There is no need to comment on every item on this disc but some
titles should be pointed out. The lyric middle section of The
Trumpeter is beautiful. In Balfe’s setting of Tennyson’s Come
into the Garden, Maud, McCormack demonstrated his golden
tone and the beautiful Evening Song with harp accompaniment
has an exquisite final soft note. The Vacant Chair,
a song written during the American Civil War, reminds us
that when it was recorded the last day of March 1915, the
world was already half a year into The Great War and many
vacant chairs were to be found around the world. It is also
remarkable for the final note, which is a D flat above high
C and is the highest note McCormack ever recorded.
The collaboration between McCormack and Fritz Kreisler is represented
here in four titles. The rapport between the two musicians
is indeed remarkable. In Moszkowski’s Serenata Kreisler’s
warm tone is at once recognizable. His double stops are perfect
in the seemingly improvised interlude and after McCormack’s
cadenza their duet is lovely. Carmé is sung in Italian
and is one of the gems here.
Kreisler is also represented as composer with his lollipop The
Old Refrain, which evokes memories of his own recording
of the piece. The final note is superb. Tosti’s Parted is
sung with glow and beautiful legato but the real masterpiece
is the only opera item on the disc and the last opera aria
McCormack ever recorded – at least acoustically: Mozart’s Il
mio tesoro from Don Giovanni. It has long been
regarded as the benchmark reading and is a real textbook
version: the legato, the perfect runs, the long unbroken
phrases and the nuances. ‘This record is impeccable”, a
German critic once said and I must agree. For those who
don’t have this recording the disc is more than worth the
price for this piece alone. It is also interesting to note
that he sings the next song, The Kerry Dance, with
the same care for detail and tone as for the Mozart aria.
McCormack took all the music he recorded seriously.
Ward Marston’s restorations draw out as much information from these
more than 90-year-old records as is possible and those who
are still sceptical about acoustic recordings should give
this disc a try – not least for the sake of Il mio tesoro.
John Scarry’s liner-notes are of great help to realise the
importance of some of the other numbers.
Track listing J. AirlieDIX (18??-1911)
1. The Trumpeter [3:41] Michael W. BALFE (1808 – 1870)
2. Come Into the Garden, Maud [4:00] Henry Kimball HADLEY (1871 – 1937)
3. Evening Song, Op. 53, No. 3 [2:42] Oley SPEAKS (1874 – 1948)
4. Morning [2:21] Old Scottish Air:
5. Turn Ye to Me [3:48] Ethelbert NEVIN (1862 – 1901)
6. The Rosary [2:07] Trad. (arr. Wade)
7. Adeste Fideles [4:01] George Frederick ROOT (1820 – 1895)
8. The Vacant Chair [3:06] Edwin SCHNEIDER (? - ?)
9. When the Dew is Falling [2:35] Moritz MOSZKOWSKI (1854 – 1925)
10. Serenata, Op. 15, No. 1 [2:43] Trad. (arr. DeCurtis):
11. Carmé [3:19] Erik MEYER-HELMUND (1861 – 1932)
12. Flirtation [2:15] Carl BÖHM (1844 – 1920)
13. Still as the Night, Op. 326, No. 27 [2:22] Eugene COWLES (1860 – 1948)
14. Forgotten (A Love Song of Poland) [3:22] Godfrey NUTTING (? - ?)
15. Sing, Sing, Birds on the Wing [3:29] Old Dutch Air (arr. Hoffmann):
16. God’s Hand [2:20] Ernest R. BALL (? - ?)
17. A Little Bit of Heaven [3:17] Paolo TOSTI (1846 – 1916)
18. Venetian Song [3:27] Fritz KREISLER (1875 – 1962)
19. The Old Refrain [3:24] Paolo TOSTI
20. Parted [3:32] Anton STRELEZKI (? - ?)
21. Dreams [3:09] Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756 – 1791) Don Giovanni, K527:
22. Il mio tesoro [4:15] James L. MOLLOY (1837 – 1909)
23. The Kerry Dance [4:11] Edwin SCHNEIDER
24. Your Eyes [2:01] Ethelbert NEVIN
25. Little Boy Blue [2:50]
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